Blessings
by Roza-Dimka-Reader
Summary: Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov are enjoying married life to the best of their abilities, all the while striving to be the best parents they can be for their children. With busy schedules, overwhelming work and a growing family, will Rose and Dimitri's relationship stay steady? Will they find the perfect balance between work and family-time? AH/AU. Sequel to Learning Curves.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, this is the sequel to Learning Curves (and ergo, Hook, Line and Sinker). Hope you enjoy and don't forget to review.**

**I welcome both new and old readers - be sure to tell me what you think, whoever and wherever you are in the world :)**

**Chapter 1**

DPOV

"Dada?"

His voice was a mere whisper in the night. If I hadn't already been awake, I would not have heard it. As it happened, I was. Sitting up slightly, I could see the small silhouette of my two year old in the doorway.

"Are you okay, George?"

The rapid scurrying of feet was my only indication that my son had entered our bedroom. Seconds later, I felt his little hands touching my arm as he tried to pull himself up onto the bed. Carefully, I reached out and pulled his body into the bed beside me. Immediately, he cuddled into the warmth of the blanket. In my sleep-riddled state, it took me a couple of moments to realise that he was trembling.

"George, are you cold?" He shook his head slightly.

"Did you have a bad dream?" George nodded his head and snuggled in closer to my body. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Monster…" he sobbed gently, clutching as close as he could to me. "…under my bed…" Whatever he said after that was cut off by his sniffling coupled with his tears. Immediately, I tried to soothe him in case he woke Rose up. I could feel her shifting restlessly in her sleep behind me.

"Tell you what," I whispered to him. "How about you stay in here tonight and tomorrow, I'll make sure that there's no monster under your bed?" George nodded his consent and then pointed over at Rose's side of the bed.

"Mama." He didn't say anything else, but he didn't need to. I slid my hands under his small body as he just looked at me expectantly, and I carefully lifted him so that he lay in between Rose and myself.

"Mama…" He murmured once again as he curled himself close to her. She didn't wake, but even in her unconscious state she was aware of his presence – something that fascinated me to no end. I watched - almost captivated – as Roza turned in her sleep and curled an arm protectively around our son. Immediately, both bodies relaxed and George let sleep consume his exhausted body once again. His nightmares were quite common, as were his nightly visits.

From my many conversations with Rose, I knew that she didn't mind sharing the bed with George – especially if he had been frightened by a nightmare – but I tended to take the firmer hand on the case. In cases such as tonight, I didn't mind George staying in the bed with us…however, it had become a routine. One I intended to put a stop to as soon as I could.

A couple of hours later, I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock ringing piercingly around the room.

"Ugh comrade, turn it off…" Rose's grumpy voice was muffled by her pillow, but her tone was pretty clear. Blindly, I felt around my bedside cabinet until my hand came into contact with the clock and I switched it off.

"Time to get up, Roza," I informed her jokingly, watching her in amusement as I sat up. Her inability to be a morning person was something I got immense fun out of…it was also something that George had – seemingly – inherited.

"Five more minutes…" she mumbled back, nestling her face into the back of our two year old's neck.

"Alright then," I agreed, swinging my legs of bed. "I'll get Luka up."

Luka, thankfully, was more like me. He was already awake when I entered his bedroom, and had proceeded to get up and get dressed within ten minutes.

"Daddy, will you help me with my spelling later?" He asked later that morning when I was making some breakfast for my sleepy family.

"It's Friday," I pointed out. "I thought you didn't get homework for the weekend?"

"I don't," he replied, swinging slightly on his chair. "But my teacher said that there will be a test next week!"

"Careful, Luka," I said sternly, gesturing towards the chair he was trying to balance on two legs. "And of course I'll help you; I just have to bring Mama to the airport first, alright?" He nodded his approval whilst shovelling as much cereal as he possibly could into his mouth.

"Rose!" I poked my head out of the kitchen door and aimed my voice towards the stairs. "Are you ready? We have to go soon or you'll miss your flight."

"Alright, alright, we're coming!" I chuckled as I heard George let out a happy scream as Rose evidently attacked him with tickles. I shook my head as I walked back to the kitchen, proceeding to put Rose's breakfast on the table.

"Thanks, comrade," she gave me a quick, breathless peck on the lips before setting George into his high chair and sitting down to eat her food. I placed a spoon in front of George, along with a small bowl of cut up fruit to which he immediately dug in to.

"So what are you guys going to do today?" Rose asked us, eventually looking up from her almost empty plate.

"I thought we could go to the park for a little while?" I suggested, taking a seat at the table beside George to encourage him to eat his food, which he had been refusing to touch once again. "Mama said she might call in for a bit this evening as well."

"That sounds nice," Rose commented wistfully, looking worriedly at George. "I wish I didn't have to go…"

"You'll be back soon," I gave her hand a squeeze. "Once you have this case wrapped up we'll have too much time to go play at the park."

"Yeah, you're right," she replied, standing to rinse her now-empty plate. "Anyway, we'd better go Dimitri. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can come home."

"That sounds like a plan," I grinned and snagged her at the waist as she walked by me. She giggled as I pulled her into my arms and placed a heated kiss on her lips. "Hurry back to me."

"Always, comrade. Always."

* * *

DPOV

Twenty four hours had passed since Rose had flown to Washington to finish up her most recent case. It was Saturday, meaning that I had the day off and was planning to spend it playing in the garden with my two boys…

That was until Rose sent me a message reminding me of George's check-up appointment.

"No!"

"Come on, George," I coaxed him, trying to contain my frustration as my two year old refused to get ready for the doctor's willingly.

"Daddy, can you help me with my spelling yet?" I managed to grab a hold of George who had crawled underneath a bush at the back of the garden and pull him out…much to his absolute displeasure.

"I don't have time right now, Luka," I replied, trying to hear myself over George's intense high-pitched screaming. He continued to cry and whinge for the entire journey. Thankfully, Sonya's practice was less than twenty minutes away, but it seemed a lot longer for both Luka and I when there was a two year old screeching at the top of his lungs.

My work required me to work out often, which in turn kept me fit and strong at all times. This, thankfully, came in useful when I struggled to carry George from the car into Sonya's clinic.

"Oh dear," Sonya shot me a sympathetic look as we entered her office. "We're not in a very good mood today, are we Georgee?" When she reached out towards him, he immediately began to bury his head into my neck, all the while sobbing. Sonya rubbed his back soothingly and gestured for us to take a seat. While I settled George into my lap and attempted once again to calm him down, Luka went to play with some toys in the corner and Sonya opened George's file. While his sobs quietened, Sonya refocused her attention on me. She and Mikhail had become good friends of Rose and I; they were both fun, socialable people, but when it came to our children, Sonya was all business.

"When Rose called she said that he hasn't been eating very well? And ends up crying whenever you try and make him? How long has this been going on for, can you tell me?"

"The past two days," I replied, shifting George around to face Sonya now that his tears had ceased. "Rose thinks he might have a sore throat or something."

"Alright," Sonya pulled her chair closer and leaned down so that she was almost at eye level with him. "Georgee, would you mind if I had a little peek into your mouth? It won't hurt, I promise."

Fortunately, George knew Sonya pretty well from their many visits; therefore it didn't take him very long to comply with her request. Unsurprisingly, he was a lot more interested in the instruments that she was using…that was until she started poking around in his mouth, which was when he burst out crying again.

"You poor thing," she moved away as he tried to turn and curl his body closer into mine. "His throat looks red and inflamed, but he's got quite a few sores in his mouth also. They're definitely causing him pain which is probably why he isn't eating or sleeping properly. Isn't that right, sweetheart? Does your mouth hurt?" George didn't really answer; he just cuddled as close as he possibly could.

"What do you think it is?" I asked her, concerned. "Is this normal?"

"It's a virus known as hand-foot-and-mouth – very common in young kids. He could have picked it up anywhere, but it is generally harmless as long as he doesn't become dehydrated. It's a virus so I can't give him any medication to make him better, but he should begin to feel better in about a weeks' time by himself. In the meantime, you can give him some ibuprofen to ease the pain and lots of cold liquids. And don't be surprised if he gets a fever or more sores or rashes appear around his body – they're just common symptoms. They shouldn't last more than a couple of days but if they do, give me a ring. I'll pop in tomorrow after work to check on him if you'd like."

"Thanks, Sonya," I smiled gratefully at her as I cradled my two year old in my arms.

"No problem, Dimitri." I stood as she stood and gestured for Luka to come with me. "Oh, and be very careful with hugs and kisses, as well as any toys that Luka and George both use in case he spreads it. I know George and Rose are close, but when she gets back tell her that it's best not to kiss him in case she catches it too."

"I will," I replied, already imagining the look of horror on Rose's face when I passed on that particular piece of advice. "Thanks again, Sonya."

"No worries," she opened the door for us and ruffled Luka's hair as he passed. "I'll call in tomorrow. See you then."

We left Sonya's practice very shortly after that and began our short journey home. George's renewed round of sobs had me wondering if we even had any painkillers left at the house, and so I had to go into the store – which was no longer an easy feat now that we had two kids; most particularly when one of them was crying and throwing a tantrum.

"Okay, buddy, okay it's home time." Luka trailed behind me ever so slightly as I wrestled to get George into his car seat. My frustration was definitely not as strong as before now that I knew that the reason he was crying was because he was in pain. My irritation had transformed into sympathy and guilt for being so hard on him.

Once we arrived home, I carried George up the stairs and into his bedroom, where I stripped him of his clothes and lay his tired, diapered body under the covers. Immediately I made him take some painkillers and rubbed his tummy in gentle, soothing circles. Surprisingly quickly, the pain seemed to ease and George slipped into a deep, well-deserved slumber.

"Daddy?"

"Ssh…" I gestured for Luka –who had appeared in the doorway – to keep quiet. "You alright, Luka?"

He nodded. "Is George going to be okay?" I smiled and half-closed George's bedroom door.

"He's going to be just fine in a couple of days. You don't need to worry; go play for a while and I'll make us some lunch…" Luka complied and hurried down the stairs to the playroom he shared with his brother. Dread suddenly landed with a jolt in my stomach.

"…right after I call your mother."


	2. Chapter 2

**Yowza! What an amazing response to chapter 1! It has only been 24 hours since I posted chapter one and to date, I've gotten well over 100 alerts regarding this story in my email :D Thanks you guys, and as a treat, I got up early and wrote this chapter :) Enjoy.**

**Chapter 2**

DPOV

"…and then guess what happened?! I met _Lissa_! I mean, what are the chances that Liss and I are away on work in the exact same city, at the exact same time? It's awesome!"

It was late afternoon on Sunday and Rose was relaying her news excitedly to me over the phone. I lay back on our bed as she continued to talk; she was seemingly not bothered by my silence.

"…it was really nice, you know? After I finished up the case, the two of us went out for a couple of drinks together which was great. Liss and I don't get to hang out nearly as much as we used to…Are you alright, comrade? You're yawning a lot?"

"I'm fine, Roza," I replied quietly. "Just tired. I was up with George for most of the night – he's sick."

"He's sick?" I cringed as I could practically see her panicked face. "What's wrong with him? Did you bring him to Sonya?"

"Yes, I did. She says he has some virus; it should be gone in about a week. But it's contagious so Mama picked up Luka yesterday evening and Sonya's going to stop by this evening to see how George is."

"Oh my poor baby," Rose said sadly. "Should I call someone to change my flight from tomorrow to this evening? I can be home by tonight-"

"Rose, it's okay," I quickly began reassuring her. "He tired himself out crying last night so he should be pretty much out of it for the rest of the day. Don't worry, I can handle it."

"I can't help but worry, comrade, you know that."

"I know," I smiled to myself. "But hopefully some of the pain will have gone by tomorrow and he'll be in a better state to give you a 'welcome home' hug…no kisses though," I warned. "Sonya's orders. We don't want you getting sick too."

"Ugh, you're killing me, comrade," She groaned into the phone. "How can I not kiss him when he's in pain?"

"We'll figure it out, Roza. Go relax for a bit; you deserve it. See you in the morning."

"Bye Dimitri. I love you."

"Love you too." I pulled myself onto my tired feet and went to check on George. Despite having reassured Rose, I couldn't help but worry myself. George was only a toddler after all, and he had been looking pale and even sicker today.

I felt a little better after Sonya called and assured me that it was normal, and not long after she had left, Ivan appeared with my other son.

"Hiya bud," I greeted him, placing a hand on his head. "You alright?" Luka nodded and yawned.

"How about you go and get ready for bed, then I'll tuck you in and read you a story?" I suggested, taking in his tired appearance and hoping that he hadn't caught anything off George. Luka nodded happily at my suggestion and hurried up the stairs to put his pyjamas on.

"You don't look too good, D," Ivan noted, making his way into my living room and plonking his butt down on my couch.

"You wouldn't either if you'd been up almost forty-eight hours straight," I shot back, although my comment lacked any real energy. Ivan sent me his signature smirk as he stood up and headed to the kitchen.

"I know exactly what you need." He returned a moment later, a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Here." I shook my head but he thrust the bottle into my hand anyway. "No. Drink it. I'll put Luka to bed and read to him. You need to chill out…I think I can see- yes, is that a grey hair?" I slapped his hand away from my head and shot him an unappreciative glare at his comment, making him laugh. He left the room then, leaving me to my own devices after insisting he take care of my child.

Seemingly, I drifted off to sleep without realising it. Suddenly, my eyes were opening and I jumped up in shock, succeeding in spilling some of the contents of my untouched drink.

"Careful!" Ivan came forward, taking the alcohol from me. "Don't waste it. It's sacred."

I rolled my eyes as he took a swig, patting down the wet stain on my shirt.

"How long have I been asleep?"

Ivan thought about it while twiddling his thumbs on the glass bottle.

"About an hour and a half, I guess. And before you say it-" Ivan rose his eyebrows as I made to stand up. "Yes, I just checked on both boys; they're both okay and sound asleep."

"Thanks, Ivan," I chose not to sit back down, as I would more than likely just drift off to sleep once again. Instead, I began clearing up some of the toys that lay scattered around the living room. "Do you want to stay over?"

Ivan chuckled. "Are you making a move on me, Dimitri? I think you're having pretty serious Rose-withdrawal…or maybe it's the beer talking-"

"It's late," I interrupted him, also chuckling. "I just didn't think you'd want to drive back home at this time. The spare bedroom's there if you want it."

It was Ivan's turn to thank me. "Thanks, Dimitri. I might take you up on that – it's not like I'm doing anything else tonight."

I pretended to be shocked. "_What?!_ The great Ivan Zeklos doesn't have a hot date on a Saturday night?"

"It's shocking for me too," he replied, smirking. "And by the way, it's Sunday."

"It is?"

"Jeez, you _are_ tired. Go to bed, Dimitri. I can watch the kids in the morning while you pick up Rose from the airport."

"Okay thanks, man. Help yourself to the beer – you know where it is."

"I sure do."

* * *

RPOV

Making my way through the crowded airport, I craned my neck to see if I could spot Dimitri. Thankfully, as I pushed through the throng of people in Arrivals, the crowd began to clear. Now able to seem more clearly, I located Dimitri very quickly.

"Hi!" I hurried towards him and let him cling onto me for dear life. I laughed when he refused to let go. "Rough weekend, comrade?"

"Don't ever leave me again."

"I'll try not to," I chuckled as he finally released his iron-like grip hold of me. "Was your weekend really that bad? How's George doing? And Luka?"

"It wasn't so bad," Dimitri responded, grabbing my luggage and walking out of the airport by my side. "George isn't much better, but Luka doesn't seem to have caught anything. Ivan's dropping him off to school as we speak. George was still asleep when I was leaving and Avery was going to cool him down with a wet cloth."

"Okay," I nodded, unable to help feeling worried. "Did Sonya look concerned when she was having a look at him?" He shook his head.

"She told me that this is all normal, Roza. Stop worrying. He's going to be just fine; we just need to give it a couple of days."

"Alright, alright," I agreed to tone my concern down. If George would be okay then I could stay calm…but that didn't mean I didn't like that he was in pain. "Pull over here for a sec."

Dimitri looked at me in confusion. "Why do you want me to pull over?"

"Just drive down the little lane."

"What for?"

"Just do it!" Dimitri seemed to realise that it was a much wiser choice to just do what I said and began driving down the small lane I had indicated. When he eventually arrived at a completely deserted area, he pulled the car over and turned off the ignition. I released myself from the confines of my seatbelt as he just looked at me expectantly.

Smirking seductively, I clambered quickly into his lap before what was happening had even registered with him. My lips attacked his while his mind caught up to what we were doing.

"I thought you wanted to get home and see George?" He questioned, removing his mouth from mine and gazing into my eye. In our close proximity, his hot breath swept over my skin, causing goose bumps to arise on my neck and a shiver to travel down my spine.

"I do," I replied indignantly, struggling to remove his tee-shirt in the tight space. "But I think I'm ovulating again and this is probably the only time alone we're going to have for days, so suck it up, cowboy. We're doing this."

Unsurprisingly, it didn't really take Dimitri that long to be convinced. We soon realised that it was going to be next to impossible to do what we wanted to do in the driver's seat, and so we both managed to clamber into the backseats.

"It's been a while since we've done it in a car," Dimitri commented when we were done a little while later. "A long while, actually."

"Maybe this could be our new thing?" I suggested with a grin, propping myself up on one elbow to see his face. "Whenever one of us returns from a work trip in another state, _this_ is our welcome home." He chuckled and kissed my lips.

"I like the sound of that," he agreed, coaxing me down onto his chest. "Did you say you were ovulating?"

"I _think_ I am," I corrected. "I haven't taken a test yet but it should be around this time. We should have sex again tonight...Maybe even twice if we can. And if George doesn't come into our room tonight, we should do it again in the morning before the boys wake up for school."

I sat up and began searching for my clothes. As much as I enjoyed our 'alone' time, Dimitri was right. I really was anxious to get home to my baby boy.

"Ugh," Dimitri pulled himself up too and began to pull his own clothes back on. "When did we become one of those couples who plan when they have sex?"

"Since we started trying to have another baby," I reminded him. "I know it's a little weird but we need to be aware of when I'm ovulating or when I'm at my highest peak of fertility."

"But still," he grumbled childishly, putting his seatbelt on and turning the car. "Do we _have_ to plan it? Can't we just do it around the clock and that should ensure us getting pregnant."

"That won't ensure anything other than disgust from our colleagues and horror from our children," I laughed. "We had Luka and George very quickly…we were just lucky, comrade. It's not usually that easy for a lot of people. Hell, it looks like it's not going to be easy for us! We had planned that I'd be pregnant by the time I finished this case."

"Which just proves my point…" Dimitri sent a glance my way. "…Plans don't guarantee results either. We've been trying for a baby for months now with still no result."

I took a moment to study him closer. The dark bags under his eyes and the yawns that kept escaping from his mouth were clear indicators of how he was feeling.

"I know it's frustrating, Dimitri," I curled my hand around his. "But it's normal for this to take some time. And we've only been trying for a couple of months…conceiving takes years for some people!"

"We've been trying for five months, Rose, not 'a couple,'" He replied grimly. "And I'm pretty sure that conceiving a child shouldn't take as long for two people who already have two children."

"If it makes you feel any better, I have a very good feeling about this month," I grinned at him, hoping to lift his mood. I could see how much this entire ordeal was putting strain on him emotionally.

"You said that last month."

"And I'll continue to say it until that pregnancy test reads positive. But I mean it this time – my gut is telling me that this month could be the month. Don't sweat it, comrade. Just look on the bright side, look at how much sex we get to have!" That last comment made him crack a smile, making both of us feel much better.

We pulled up outside of the house and I made to get out but Dimitri grabbed my hand and held me back.

"I love you, you know that right?" He said seriously, and I smiled softly at him. I knew what was going through his mind; he felt guilty and was feeling as though it was his fault that we hadn't gotten pregnant yet…which was totally ridiculous, but I needed to face the facts – this was Dimitri, after all.

"Of course I do," I patted his cheek. "You tell me every day…three times a day…" He looked down and I wrapped two arms around him. "Stop feeling bad. This is going to happen for us again; I know it will. And even if it doesn't, you've given me two wonderful, handsome boys that I love with everything I have in me. I'm happy, Dimitri. Understand?" I demanded.

"I understand, General," he smiled softly at me and let me go. "Now let's go check on the patient."

* * *

**What did you guys think?**

**I have some good news and some bad news.**

**The good news is that I'm going on holidays to the States (I've never been before!) :D This is also the bad news as it means I won't be able to write and update any of my stories for a couple of weeks. I'm not leaving until the day after tomorrow, but I'm not sure I'll have time to write chapter 3 and post it, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a few weeks. Sorry! But leave me lots of reviews for when I return? **

**Talk to you guys soon, I'll try on update on July 10th, which is the day I get back :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Surprise ;) Do you love me? :P Show me with reviews ;) Seriously, thanks for the awesome feedback you're giving me - I'm happy to be able to write stories you all enjoy.**

**I'm leaving in the morning (about 8 hours time) so I'd better get to bed! Goodnight and I'll see you in a couple of weeks :)  
Enjoy the chapter -RDR**

**Chapter 3**

DPOV

Words could not describe George's happiness at having Rose home once again. He'd been tired and grouchy all morning until the very moment she walked through the door. The sad toddler had been sitting on Avery's lap with a cold cloth pressed to his forehead when he'd spotted his mother.

"Mama!" George's cry of delight was raw and scratchy, but understandable all the same. Rose rushed forward and pulled him into her arms tightly. "Mama."

"Mama's home," she whispered quietly into his hair, then placed a soft kiss there. "Mama's sorry she wasn't here…How are you feeling, baby?" Lifting him away from her slightly, Rose began feeling George's forehead.

"He's hot," she noted, glancing up at me as Avery came forward with a fresh, cool cloth.

"He's had a temperature all morning," I told her, going into the kitchen and returning with a cup of milk. "He still won't eat anything so Sonya said to just give him cool liquids for nutrition and to ease some of the aching."

"You want your sippy cup?" She asked George, taking the cup of milk from me. "It's nice and cold." The two year old gave a small nod and took the cup from Rose – but not before trying to snuggle into her lap. Rose moved to the armchair to get into a more comfortable position before she cradled our sick baby in her arms.

"He's much happier now," Avery joked, watching as Rose held his milk for him. "Maybe you were the cure he needed."

"Maybe," I agreed, relieved to see a calmness in George that I hadn't seen in quite a few days. "That's the first time he hasn't cried whenever we try and get him to eat or drink anything."

"Mama will make everything better, okay?" I smiled at them as Rose pulled George in close to her body and held him like she did when he was a baby. As I left the room then to make us a snack, I could hear her cooing and singing to George. Avery followed me to help and to give them a few moments alone.

"They seem like they really missed each other," Avery noted as she chopped up some vegetables. "Have they ever been apart for that long before?"

"No," I replied, still able to her Rose's soft murmurs coming from the living room. "They're very close; they always have been. It's the same with Luka."

"Are you jealous?" She joked, elbowing me. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Nah, she's their mother, you know? They're supposed to have a unique bond with each other. That's something I wouldn't even want to take away – from any of them."

"Comrade?" Rose's quiet voice echoed from the living room. I returned to the room to find that George had fallen asleep in her arms. "A little help?"

"Of course," I carefully lifted him from her lap and put him resting on the couch. Rose took off some of his clothes to keep him cool, and then covered him with a light blanket.

"He looks pale," She noted, leaning against me as we stood near the couch George lay on. "And he's not his usual happy self."

"No," I agreed, wrapping an arm around her. "But he will be."

* * *

RPOV

"Hi Mama," Luka walked in the door, Dimitri behind him, a couple of hours later that same day. "You're back." Being seven years old, Luka had become somewhat accustomed to the fact that both Dimitri and I had to travel quite often for short periods of time. Although he didn't quite understand _why_ we had to leave, he knew that it was for work and that it was important.

"I am," I held out my arms and engulfed him in a hug. "How was school? I missed you."

"Fine," he replied, moving out of my embrace and putting his bag by the kitchen table. "Missed you too." I studied him closely as he began pulling his homework out of his bag; I wasn't sure what it was, but he seemed a little…off form.

"Luka, are you feeling okay?" I walked towards the chair he was now sitting on and began feeling his forehead for a fever. "Do you feel sick?" He shook his head and pulled a freshly topped pencil from his pencil case.

"Sweetie," I sat down in the adjacent chair to his. "Are you sure you're okay? If you're not feeling well, you should tell me or Daddy, okay?" A small nod of the head was the only pointer I received that indicated he had understood. With a sigh, I stood and left him alone. I watched as he immediately began to figure out his homework, chuckling to myself at how similar to Dimitri he was.

If only I could be that motivated to do my paperwork, I thought pensively. I groaned inwardly, suddenly remembering the stack of reports I had to fill out in regard to my most recent completed case.

"What are you thinking about?" Dimitri's arms were suddenly wrapped around my waist from behind and his lips were at my neck.

"Mmh…that big stack of paperwork waiting for me," I groaned, leaning back into him. "I swear that's the only thing I hate about this job. Why am I even complaining to you? It's not like you understand…you can just get one of your minions to do it for you." I sighed bitterly. Dimitri had been climbing the career ladder pretty highly lately. He'd gotten promoted last year and now held a pretty influential position at our branch; this meant that he got all the perks of being an agent, without the boring stuff.

"Don't sulk, Roza," he whispered into my ear, casting a careful glance at Luka who was still buried in his school work. "I'll make it up to you. I promise."

I turned in his arms, gasping slightly when he pulled my torso tightly against his. "Are you saying that if I go and finish all my paperwork, you'll help me relax afterwards?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," he placed a hot kiss just under my ear. "And I'm pretty damn god at making you…_relax._" An instinctive shiver shot straight through me and he placed another kiss underneath my other ear.

"I'd better go and get my work done then," I said, feeling a little breathless. Dimitri smirked impishly and slapped my butt as I walked away. I shot him a playful glare before following the sound of my two year old calling out for me.

Unfortunately, my paperwork didn't actually get done that evening. A sick George decided he had had enough of sleeping and refused to stop crying. Anxious that he would make his throat worse by screaming, I gave him the promise of a bath; which was the only thing that would seemingly calm him down. I was just shampooing his hair whilst in the tub when the door rang. George's head shot up and he listened intently as he tried to figure out who was here. I laughed at the concentration and curiosity on his face.

"It's Lissa!" Dimitri called from the bottom of the stairs. I called back, telling him to send her up to me.

"Issa!" George exclaimed when she poked her head inside the bathroom door.

"Hi Georgee! How are you feeling?" Lissa closed the door behind her and walked further into the room, her heels clicking noisily on the tiles. She perched herself on the toilet seat lid as George grasped at the air in front of him, indicating that he wanted her to pick him up.

"Not yet, George," I chuckled, pulling him away from Lissa to wash out the shampoo. "You don't want to get Lissa's pretty clothes all wet now, do you?" I shot an appreciative glance at the beautiful dress Lissa was wearing.

"I don't understand how you do that."

"Do what?" My best friend looked genuinely confused. With wet hands, I gestured up and down her body.

"Look so gorgeous all of the time! I don't think I've ever seen you with a hair out of place. I don't think you even own a pair of sweatpants or a hoodie!"

"I own a hoodie!" She said indignantly, unknowingly flipping her hair.

"Yeah, but do you ever wear it?" Her silence was the answer I was looking for. "See. I don't get it. How can someone who has the same amount of kids as I do look so much better than I do?"

"Rose!" Lissa looked a little appalled. "You're absolutely stunning!"

After giving my clothes – which were covered in splotches of soapy water and even some food – a once over, I shot Lissa a pointed look.

"I'm not talking about your clothes," she waved off my raised eyebrows. "Every mom owns clothes that get dirty and stained every day. That's completely normal. I'm talking about _you_. Look at you!" She gestured towards the mirror. "You have a two year old _and_ a seven year old, yet you have the body of a fit, twenty year old virgin!" I waved her off.

"I'm serious, Rose," She moved from her perch and knelt on the ground beside me. "You are beautiful. It's so hard to understand how you can't see that."

"It's hard to see anything about myself when I barely get time to look in the mirror," I grumbled, turning around and leaning against the bath. Lissa copied my action and leant her body against mine. "Although Dimitri doesn't complain."

"Again," she rolled her eyes at me. "Why would he? You have to be one of the _hottest_ mom's to have walked this earth...that's a lot of moms, you know."

I laughed and leaned my head against her shoulder.

"How are things going between you guys? Any sign of a baby yet?" George wouldn't understand what Lissa meant, but she lowered her voice all the same.

"Nope," I let out a large sigh. "It's just disheartening. I can handle it because it's going to happen for sure one of these days, right? It has too. But Dimitri's taking it a little harder than I am. I feel like he's about ready to give up."

"You guys will be fine," Lissa reassured me and squeezed my hand. She was among one of the only people we had told that we were trying to have a baby. "You already have two amazing children and I know that you're definitely not done. You guys work so well together as a team that there is no way you guys will be deprived of getting to use your awesome parenting skills on another baby. I'm telling you; this will all work out in the end."

"Thanks, Liss," I smiled gratefully at my best friend. "I just wish that I didn't have to wait a few weeks before taking a test."

"You never were very patient," she joked, interlocking our fingers. We talked and laughed for another few minutes before we both collapsed into a comfortable silence…

Well, that was until a large splash of water landed on Lissa's head.

"George!" I scolded, unable to help myself from laughing at Lissa's stunned face. George too, seemed to find the situation hilarious, and looked quite proud at having been the mastermind.

"Well, he's definitely your kid anyway," Lissa stood, grumbling while trying to fix her wet hair in the mirror.

"Sorry, Liss," I lifted George from the bath and wrapped him up in a fluffy towel. "The back of your dress is a little wet too. Do you want to borrow some clothes?"

"No, that's okay," The 'Ice Queen' melted upon taking one look at my two year old's outstretched arms. "How can I stay mad at you and your puppy dog eyes?"

"Sowwy, Issa," George cuddled in close to her and I raised an eyebrow at his sly ways. Like mother, like son, I guess. He really had everybody wrapped around his little fingers.

"That's okay, sweetie," Lissa kissed his forehead, not caring that George was getting her clothes even more wet. "I know you were only playing."

I took him back into my arms and began patting him dry. "You know, I think that you made him feel better."

"He certainly looks like he's feeling better after that," Lissa laughed, making a face at him which in turn, made him giggle.

"You sure you don't want any dry clothes?" I checked, indicating to her dress whilst pulling on George's pajamas.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I just stopped by to remind you that we're meeting Sydney next weekend to go over last minute wedding details," she swept some invisible dirt from her front. "Do you want me to put a reminder in your phone for you?"

I shot her a look. "I am not the one you need to remind…I have Dimitri, remember? The man is like a living, breathing calendar – he reminds me of everything I need to do on an hourly basis. Mia is _definitely_ the one you need to remind."

"She's on the agenda for tomorrow," Lissa told me. "I was on my way home so I said I'd just call in for a few minutes. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah okay, Lissa," I placed George on his feet and gave her a hug. "Give my love to Isabella and Cooper…and Christian, I guess."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Of course I will. Feel better Georgee. I'll let myself out. See you, Rose."

"See ya, Liss." I heard her call goodbye to Dimitri and Luka downstairs when leaving and I began my nightly routine of bribing George to go to bed. Thankfully, he was more tired than normal and fell into a deep sleep pretty soon after I had read him a story. Long after his breathing had evened out, I stayed curled up in his bed, enjoying the feel of his small warm body against mine.

"Are you asleep?" I looked up upon hearing Dimitri's whisper from the doorway. Careful not to wake him, I removed myself from George's grasp and tucked him in. As I left the room, I half-closed the door so that he wouldn't get too scared if he woke up. I took Dimitri's hand and we quietly tiptoed into Luka's room to say goodnight.

Our seven year old lay sprawled out in his bed, most of his covers already kicked off. I smiled and began fixing them, making sure each of his limbs were tucked in from the edge of the bed. I swept his hair away from his eyes and placed a soft kiss on his forehead.

"Goodnight, Luka…" I whispered, stroking his face as he let out a small sigh. "I love you."

"He's getting so big," I said to Dimitri, moving to his side in the doorway. Dimitri agreed quietly.

"I can't believe he's already seven."

"Neither can I." I sighed and leaned into Dimitri's chest as he wrapped his arms around me. we stood for a little while longer just watching Luka before Dimitri eventually broke the silence.

"Correct me if I'm wrong…but don't we have a baby to make?"

* * *

**AN: Harmony Collins (guest) – You live in California? That's where I'm going. I live in Ireland :)**

**See you all in about 2 weeks! Also, it'd be awesome to start my extremely long day tomorrow with some reviews? ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Holy crap I've been trying to write this chapter for days! Sorry about the delay guys – I didn't have writer's block, just a bad case of jet lag and complete laziness (I'm not really that ashamed to admit that; I am on holidays after all!)**

**Anyway, here is the next chapter and thank you all so very much for the heaps and heaps of reviews, follows and everything else I received whilst I was gone – they were the best homecoming present ever :D If anyone wants to hear about my holidays to California (my first time in the US), please PM, I'd only be happy to spill :)**

**And now, I present to you the next chapter of Blessings – Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

RPOV

"Eddie!" I called out at my friend's retreating form at the opposite end of the corridor. He paused upon hearing his name and turned to face me. "Have you seen Dimitri?"

"Seen him? No," Eddie replied across the – thankfully quiet – hallway. "But I do know that he's in some important meeting. Is it urgent?"

"Eh, I'm not sure yet," I told him, my mind spinning slightly. "I just have to go for a couple of hours. Can you tell him to ring me when he gets out?"

"Sure," Eddie nodded, looking a little concerned, but I didn't have time to delay and reassure him. Rushing back to my office, I grabbed my jacket and keys and hurried to my car.

I had been curled up in my desk chair, trying to get through my quickly building-up paperwork when it had happened. Like every day, Avery had called me to inform me that she had picked up the boys from school and they were all home safely.

Her call today however, had come through about one hour too early…and had my stomach sinking into the ground before I'd even answered.

"Avery?"

"Rose? Yeah, it's me. Look, something's happened and I need you or Dimitri to get her as soon as you can." I had been quite proud of the fact that my voice was still sounding strong, despite my shaking hands.

Unable to contact Dimitri, I made my own way to the address Avery had given me…I tried not to think too much about the fact that she had told me to meet her at the hospital.

"Avery!" I yelled across the emergency room upon seeing her familiar form. "Avery, what's going on?"

As I reached her, George leaned away from her and held his hands out for me. I was about to take him into my arms when Avery pulled him back and gestured to a curtain-enclosed bed area.

"He's in there." Not needing any more encouragement, I carefully edged my way to Luka's bedside.

"Luka…" My breath caught when I saw what lay on the other side of the curtains. Luka's body – cut and bruised – looked smaller than ever wrapped up under the bed clothes. I quickly moved to his side and swept back some of his dark hair from his face. "Oh, sweetheart…"

"Ms Hathaway? You are Luka's mother, correct?" I nodded at the doctor who had appeared behind me, apparently having seen – or heard – me enter the emergency room.

"Is he going to be okay?" The dreaded question. I hated asking it…but I needed to know the answer.

"He will be fine," he informed me, a kindness seeping into his eyes. "Falling from a tree that high could have injured him a lot more than it did. He's lucky that his arm took the brunt of the fall; hitting his head would have caused some serious damage." Seeing the question appear in my eyes, he answered before I could even open my mouth.

"We've done tests and scans and know for certain that his head is not injured. Although we are still waiting for the results from his X-ray, I'm pretty sure his arm is broken in at least two places. Apart from that, I think he will make a full recovery."

"And his lungs?" I questioned, scanning Luka for a sign of any other physical damage. "He had a punctured lung as a baby…if he has broken a rib, couldn't that puncture it again?"

"The X-Ray will tell us whether or not he has broken any other bone. Thus far, your son hasn't had any trouble breathing by himself but I will have someone keep a close eye on him until we know. Okay? Any other concerns, don't hesitate to call for me."

"Thank you, doctor," I replied quietly, taking a seat beside my boy as he left. A couple of minutes later, Avery entered the small room, George dozing on her shoulder.

"Rose, I'm so sorry," she immediately gushed, grabbing a tissue when she saw the tears in my eyes. "I called you as soon as the school contacted me. They're not sure what exactly happened, but it seemed like a complete accident. Was that the doctor? Is he going to be alright?"

"The doctor think he's broken his arm as far as injuries go, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky. My poor baby…" I reached forward to stroke Luka's cheek when his eyelids began to flutter.

"Mama?"

"Hi sweetie," I scooted as close as I possibly could to him. "It's me. You're okay…everything's going to be okay…"

"You're crying," he whispered, and tried to reach out towards me before crying out in pain.

"Ssh, baby, don't move. Your arm is hurt. I'm fine, I'm just sad that you got hurt. Just rest now, Mama's here…" As I began stroking his head in a soothing manner, the pain relief they had given him took hold of him once again and he slowly drifted back to sleep.

"Mama!" In the silence that had engulfed our little enclosed area, George's yell seemed deafening.

"George," I chastised, shushing him as I took him into my arms. "It's not nice to yell; your brother is sleeping." George just looked at me blankly, making Avery giggle.

"I can take him home and watch him tonight if you want. You and Dimitri will probably be here for a while," she suggested, tickling George under the chin.

"Dimitri…" My mind remembered that he didn't know what was going on. "That'd be great, Avery, thank you. Could you do me a favour first though? Could you call Dimitri for me and tell him to come?"

"Of course." Avery left me alone with my boys while she called my husband. Sitting in the comforting silence, I studied my seven year old closely. Every day he was becoming more and more like Dimitri – in both looks and personality. With the career area we were involved in, I had unfortunately seen Dimitri in a couple of situations such as this, and vice versa…

But never in a million years did I think that I'd see one of my baby boys broken and bruised in a hospital bed. I felt my heart squeeze and my stomach churn at the very thought.

Once Dimitri had been fully informed of what was going on, he had arrived at the hospital within thirty minutes in a frenzied panic. I quickly filled him in on the details of what had happened and how, after which the doctor returned and informed us both of the results of Luka's x-ray.

"A broken arm?" I heard Dimitri repeat as I kissed Luka's forehead. He was still sleeping soundly, thanks to his medication but every now and again, his lids would flutter slightly. Each time, his breathing got a little more definite – as if he was dreaming – and I would stroke his hair until it evened out once again.

"It was an accident?" Dimitri's voice sounded from very close to my ear, making me jump. I glanced at him to see that he had pulled up a chair beside me, and the doctor had left to tend to other patients while I had been distracted.

"That's what Avery was told; although it didn't sound like many people saw what actually happened. He was climbing a tree and slipped – that's all we know." Dimitri's face was contorted with worry and concern for our son. I quickly grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, letting him take comfort from our entwined fingers. "He's a child, Dimitri. These things happen."

"I know," he replied quietly, pulling our hands into his lap as he began playing with my engagement ring. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Of course it doesn't; I don't like it either," Forgetting about the handholding, I lifted myself from my own chair into his lap. "But we're going to have to get used to them getting hurt, as bad as that sounds – we can't possibly protect them from everything. This was just one accident, one time. George still has to get hurt! And the other baby when we eventually have him or her! I think you need to toughen up, comrade," I joked, messing his hair to try and lighten the mood. My attempt however, sucked. My efforts to cheer him up had included mentioning the baby we were still trying to have…

I should have known that it would only drop his spirits further.

Slowly, Dimitri's hands moved around my waist and settled on my lower abdomen.

"Do you think there's any chance you could be pregnant this month?" He whispered into my ear as his fingers drew small circles on my stomach. "Don't you usually take a test around this time?"

"I could be," I replied, thankful to not be facing him. Lying was so much easier when I didn't have to look into his hopeful eyes. "I'll take a test when we get home." The truth was, I didn't have a test at home. I had used our last one in stock a couple of days ago. As I had presumed, Dimitri's mood lightened considerably, even when Luka was getting his cast put in place. I didn't like lying to Dimitri, but honestly, I wasn't equipped emotionally to deal with the disappointment that would flash through his eyes if I had told him that I gotten my period yesterday.

It was late when we returned home, and I used Luka and my tiredness as a way of not taking the non-existent test. We spent a couple of hours settling Luka into bed for the night – reading him stories, giving him pain relief and making sure he was comfortable, before finally retiring ourselves. I climbed into bed before the thought of the test could cross Dimitri's mind, and had long fallen asleep when he had eventually remembered it. It wasn't lying…Just avoiding. But I would tell him tomorrow. Tomorrow was a new day, and I would be much better equipped to have such a tiring conversation when I had the fresh, morning sun to lift my own spirits.

* * *

It was raining. I groaned inwardly as I peeked out of the blinds the next morning at the dull, grey sky. _Typical_, I thought, sending the sky daggers as it shed all of it's tears down upon me.

"Mama?" Luka's quiet voice sounded from his nearby bedroom. I pulled on my dressing gown and hurried to his side.

"Hi sweetheart," I smiled but felt concern as he tried to sit up. "What are you doing awake? I thought you'd want to sleep in?"

"What about school?" I chuckled at his confused expression. Carefully, I lifted him into a seated position.

"You broke your arm, hon," I swept his messy hair away from his forehead. "You're allowed to get some rest and miss some school." If I'd thought his confused expression was funny, his ecstatic one was even more hilarious.

"Is Avery going to look after me?"

"Actually, I thought I'd stay with you today. I've already called my boss and asked him. He understands and just wants you to feel better."

"And what about Dad? Can he stay with us too?" Luka's face dropped slightly when Dimitri appeared in the doorway and shook his head. He was dressed in one of his work suits and was halfway through his morning cup of coffee.

"I'm afraid not, bud," Dimitri told him, taking a seat at the end of his bed and patting his leg. "I have too many meetings today. But tomorrow I'm going to stay home while your mama goes to work." Luka grinned at this news and relaxed into his pillow, seemingly okay with this idea.

Luka chatted to us for a couple of more minutes before his pain medicine began to kick in and his eyes began to droop. Carefully, Dimitri lay him back down in bed and I draped his bed covers over him. Just as we were leaving the room, Luka called out.

"Mama?" I turned to face him, Dimitri at my side. "Can I have a cup of Dada's special hot cocoa?" I smiled and glanced at Dimitri, raising my eyebrows.

"Of course, Luka," Dimitri replied gently. "I'll bring it up before I go to work, ok?"

"Kay…" His voice trailed off and I shut his bedroom door halfway so that I could still hear him if he called for anything.

"Betcha' he'll be asleep before you even finish making it," I chuckled, leading the way downstairs. It was unusually quiet considering both boys were still in bed and Avery had the day off.

"You're probably right," Dimitri replied, but pulled out the equipment to make it all the same.

"Will you make me some?" I asked, seating myself on the kitchen countertop beside him, giggling when he rolled his eyes at me. "Hey, it might calm you down before you're meetings!"

"And how exactly," Dimitri began while heating the milk. "would _me_ making _you_ hot chocolate calm _me_ down for my meetings?"

"You know what they say; hot chocolate means a happy wife, a happy wife means a happy husband, a happy husband means a relaxed agent and a relaxed agent means a good meeting."

Dimitri just looked at me in awe.

"I don't think I'll ever truly figure out exactly how your brain works." I shrugged.

"It's Rose logic."

"That it is, Roza. That it is."


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry I haven't gotten back to most of you regarding my trip, but instead I might post an A/N at the end of Chapter 6 with details for those of you that want to know :) **

**Also, for those of you who follow one of my other stories called 'An Actor's Dream,' I'm working on the next chapter as I type and I hope to have it posted within the next hour :D **

**Chapter 5**

As I had so accurately guessed, Dimitri's face showed every ounce of his disappointment when I informed him of the fact that I was not expecting a baby this month. He'd been a little stressed about his overload of meetings that day so I'd decided it was best to wait until he came home to tell him. I'd given Avery the day off and spent hours playing, cuddling and napping with my two boys. A small portion of the day was also spent answering questions from Lissa and my mother-in-law – both of whom had heard of the news of Luka's accident and wanted every detail of what had happened.

Dimitri had picked up some pizza on the way home to treat Luka and even with holding my disappointing news from him, I managed to have a nice evening with my family. It was after the kids had been tucked into bed and fallen asleep when I'd finally sat down with Dimitri and broke my news to him.

As frustrated as Dimitri was at hearing the same news week after week, I was getting pretty damn tired myself of having to give it. I mean, why couldn't I just be pregnant? It had been so easy the other times? Why was my body suddenly giving me trouble _now_? It wasn't as if I was old – I was twenty-nine for heaven's sake! If we'd had known that conceiving was going to take this long this time around, we would've started trying a long time ago.

"Nevermind," I pressed my cheek against his shoulder, turning my head to place a small kiss there. Dimitri lifted his arm and wrapped it around me, clearly sensing my own disappointment, despite my best efforts to hide it. "There's always next month."

"Hmm…" I took the sound that escaped from his mouth as an agreement, and so stood up from the couch.

"I don't know about you," I began, sweeping toys from my pathway out of the living room. "But I'm wiped. What do you say, comrade? Ready to head up to bed?" I looked back at him when he didn't answer; he was still seated on the couch, watching the floor with a troubled look on his face. "What's wrong?"

Dimitri glanced up at me, and sighed loudly before beckoning me back to the couch. Cautiously, I approached him and sat back down.

"I think maybe…" He took another deep breath and braced myself for whatever he was about to say…although I had a pretty good idea of what was about to come out of his mouth.

"I think we should stop trying."

Yep, I was right. My heart twisted a little at his words, and at the distressed look on his face.

"You want to stop trying?" I repeated, unable to help the hurt from seeping into my voice. Dimitri finally glanced up to meet my eyes with his.

"I just- I don't think I can keep doing this, Roza. Not with work being as crazy as it is, and now with Luka injured-"

"Wait-" My mind finally caught up with what he was saying. "So…you don't want to have another baby? At all?"

"I'm not saying _at all_," he replied, angling his body towards mine. He flinched when I removed my hand from his. "Look, Roza; I just think this is the best thing to do for now. Let's face it, planning has never exactly been our thing. We had Luka and George before without any trouble – or any planning for that matter! We can still have sex without protection…but we won't be actually _trying_."

His words contracted themselves slightly, but I could understand what he was saying. By saying that we were 'trying' for a baby, we were mentally drained each time I took a false pregnancy test. By just having sex whenever we wanted and living life normally, we would make a baby or we wouldn't…we just had to let the chips fall where they may.

"Are you-" Dimitri's hand tentatively returned to mine as he attempted to coax me to look at him. "I mean, is that something you'd be okay with?" I watched him thoughtfully for a moment before finally answering him.

"Yeah. Yeah it is."

* * *

The next morning, a dull – maybe even slightly sad – cloud hung over me. Judging by Dimitri's mood, he was feeling it too. We were going out of our way to be nice to one another; acting as normal as possible for George and Luka – who had made it down the stairs for breakfast this morning. In truth, my mind had had all night to process the fact that Dimitri and I may not have another baby ever again…

And that little fact had my heart aching from the very moment I opened my eyes.

"Mama, can I have some more juice?" Luka asked me, breaking me out of my trance.

"Of course, sweetheart," I reached over the newspaper that Dimitri was pretending to read and poured a fresh glass for Luka. I knew Dimitri wasn't really reading the paper as he'd been stuck on the same page for over fifteen minutes. Instead, his usually alert and focused eyes were tired and glassy, as though he hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

"Here," I set the juice down in front of Luka and handed him his painkillers. "Take these. They'll stop your arm from getting too sore later on."

"It's already a bit sore," Luka sighed, cradling his casted arm. Dimitri looked up at that and glanced at Luka with concern.

"Do you think that's normal?" I nodded at Dimitri's question, explaining that Luka had fallen asleep before taking any pain medication last night, so it had been twenty four hours since he'd had them in his system.

"Mama! Mama! Mama!" George screamed as loud as he could, trying to get my attention from his high chair.

"George," I groaned, wincing at the high pitched noise. "What have I told you about yelling? I'm standing right here." The two year old babbled on incoherently, completely oblivious to what I was even saying. Suddenly, he pointed to Luka's glass of juice.

"More, more, more!" I sighed as he bounced around as best he could in his seat.

"No, no more," I replied, beginning to put away some of the breakfast cereals. "You've already had two cups."

When the juice wasn't placed in front of him less than a minute later, George seemingly thought that now was the perfect time for a tantrum.

"Great," I sighed as he toppled the remainder of his oatmeal onto the kitchen floor, all the while kicking and screaming. I moved to get some paper towels to clean it up, when Dimitri's hand suddenly clasped my arm.

"You go finish getting ready," he said into my ear. "I've got this."

"Are you sure?" As I looked up into his eyes, I couldn't help the sadness that returned. But I realised that this was a decision that we had made as one, and whatever happened, Dimitri and I were in this together. From the look in his eyes, he was thinking about the same thing and he gave me a small, supportive smile before placing a loving kiss on my lips.

"Go get them, Roza," he whispered against my lips. "Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm not there."

"Me? Trouble? _Never!" _I replied in mock-shock, making him chuckle – a sound I had been longing so desperately to hear. "I am a mature, grown woman, comrade. I can handle the bunch of clowns at work."

* * *

"Are you freaking kidding me?" I groaned in annoyance. "What do you mean 'you lost it'? All you had to do was file them!"

Okay so maybe I was going a little hard on this guy – he was fairly new after all. But seriously, who loses an entire stack of paperwork that I'd been working on for over two weeks!

"I'm sorry, Agent Hathaway," the guy stuttered, probably well accustomed to hearing many stories of my outbreaks from various colleagues. "I really am. I'm just not sure how it happened; I mean, one minute they were there and the next-"

"It's okay, Jeffery, it doesn't matter," I sighed, propping my elbows up onto my desk and laying my head into my hands. "I'll figure it out."

"Oh but-"

"You can leave, Jeffery."

"Well, actually-"

"Can't you just _leave_, before I change my mind and make you write out every one of those reports yourself?" I all but yelled, feeling a little satisfaction when I saw him visibly gulp. In seconds, he had scurried his sorry ass from my office.

"Did you just say 'Jeffery'?" I looked up as Eddie entered my office.

"Yeah," I sighed and sank back into my chair, feeling no motivation whatsoever to start filling out that paperwork all over again. "He's just one of the new guys who messed up; it's okay, I'll fix it."

"No, I was just going to tell you that that's not his name," Eddie chuckled. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"It's not?"

"Nope, it's Peter, I believe."

"Ah crap," I groaned. "I've been calling him Jeffery for like a week." This piece of information caused Eddie to crack up.

"Ah Rose," he moved around my desk and placed a kiss on my hair. "I miss hanging out with you. It used to be so simple…what happened?"

"We grew up," I replied simply, shaking my head at the idea. "It's weird; I kinda had this idea in my head that we never would, you know? That we'd always be those young carefree people we used to be."

"Wow," Eddie looked at me impressively. "You've gotten all wise now that you're a mom. Is that something that comes along with maternal instinct?"

"Nah," I swung my chair around in a full circle. "I just spend too much time with Zen-Master Belikov. I swear the man is from a different century."

Eddie chuckled and leaned against my desk, and we were enveloped into a relaxed silence for a few minutes…before I broke it of course.

"If only Jeffery could be as smart as Dimitri and I," I commented, glancing wistfully at the new stack of papers on my already cluttered desk. "Maybe then he wouldn't lose my friggin' paperwork!"

"Rose. It's Peter."

"Dammit!"

* * *

Walking through my front door that evening sounded exactly the same as it had when I had left that morning.

George was having another tantrum.

Or perhaps it was the same tantrum that had just lasted all day…

Poor Dimitri.

"Hey, how was work?" Dimitri walked out of the living room, a struggling and screaming George in his arms. "George!"

"Yeah, it was…What's going on?"

"Nothing, he just doesn't want to take a bath."

"Have you explained to him that if he doesn't take a bath, he doesn't get a bedtime story?" I shot George a stern look – one which was promptly ignored as he continued to put up a fight.

"On several occasions," Dimitri grunted as he received a flailing elbow in the next. "I'll sort this out, don't worry. Go sit down, I'll be down in a while."

As he had instructed, I left him to deal with the distressed two year old and joined Luka in the living room.

"Hi sweetie, how are you feeling?" Luka smiled up at me, ice cream surrounding his mouth.

"Fine," I chuckled and grabbed a tissue, wiping the ice cream from his face before he made too much of a mess.

"You don't look too troubled," I joked, eyeing the den he had seemingly made of blankets on the couch in front of the television.

"I'm okay now, but Dad had to give me some more medicine earlier 'cos my arm was hurting."

"Oh," Gently, I tucked another cushion under his injured arm to make sure it was supported. "Are you okay now? I know it can be painful to break your arm; I broke mine a few times when I was younger."

"A few times?" Luka looked at me incredulously. "How'd you manage that? Wasn't it really painful?"

I nodded wistfully, remembering only some of my many injuries. "Very; especially the fourth and final time I broke it. I can't even remember how, but I finally realised how important it was to be careful. Getting hurt is not worth the pain it brings." Okay, so maybe I had lied a little – but telling your kids small, white lies was okay as long as it taught them a lesson, right? I had in fact broken my left arm on four different occasions – among other bones – but the realisation that being careful was the most important thing hadn't ever actually occurred to me.

It was important sure, but in my line of work I had to believe that putting yourself at risk was worth it if you saved innocent lives. Not that I would ever say that to my seven year old, extremely-influential son.

"Mama? Do you think you could get me some more ice-cream?" I smiled and patted his head.

"Sure. Any particular flavour?"

"Chocolate," He grinned when I winked at him and stood with his now-empty bowl. I was on my way to the freezer in the kitchen when Dimitri's yell startled me, causing me to stop in my tracks. Not because he had yelled as such, but because…

Yes, ladies and gentlemen…

Dimitri Belikov had cursed. In English. In front of his children.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Dimitri, I really think we should go see a doctor…that burn looks nasty." I quickly apologised for touching the burnt skin as Dimitri winced in pain.

"I'm fine, Roza." Dimitri moved his foot out of my reach and began to stand up. "It really doesn't hurt that much."

_That'd be a lot more convincing if you weren't limping_, I thought sarcastically, knowing better than to voice my thoughts when he was this frustrated.

It seemed that Dimitri had already been losing his temper with George when trying to get him to take a bath…

The fact that George had kicked and knocked over a jug of boiling water from the edge of the bath onto Dimitri's bare foot and shin had not helped his temper. At all.

George was currently on time out in his bedroom, Luka was still watching tv, and I had managed to escort Dimitri into our own bedroom, although the journey from the bathroom came with lots of limping and more curses – although they were under his breath and in Russian this time around.

"Okay, that's it," I pulled out my phone decisively as Dimitri struggled to withhold a wince as he sat down. "I'm calling Sonya."

"She's a children's doctor, Rose," he sighed, lying back across our bed.

"I don't care, she's a doctor. She can tell us whether or not we need to take you in."

As it turned out, we did. Upon seeing the size of the burn on his lower leg, Sonya recommended going to the ER to get the injury taken care of as soon as possible.

And so once again, we sat in the too familiar waiting room of the local hospital.

"Does it still hurt?" I leaned over and whispered to Dimitri, eyeing his leg which I had propped up on the small table in front of us.

"Not really," Dimitri replied nonchalantly, pretending to look bored.

"Which means 'yes,'" I mumbled under my breath, before standing as a doctor approached us and led us to an examination room. He studied the burn for a whole of two minutes before deciding on how bad it was and a course of action. It was as he was wrapping Dimitri's lower leg and foot in gauze that I realised how lucky we were that we had health insurance…with the amount of accidents the lot of us seemed to get into, we'd be pretty screwed money-wise if we didn't.

"There you are, Mr Belikov," Much to Dimitri's dismay, after his injury had been cleaned and wrapped up, the doctor handed him a crutch to help him walk. Dimitri eyed the aid with something close to disdain, and so I quickly stepped in and took the crutch for him.

"Thank you, doctor," I smiled at him and shook his hand. "Have a nice evening." We were left then to gather our stuff and leave the hospital – which sadly took a little longer than it should have due to Dimitri's stupid pride.

"Dimitri," I growled at him as he attempted to walk towards the door…only to grit out a pain filled yelp and grab a hold of a nearby chair. "Dimitri, for fucks sake, just take the crutch!"

"I don't need it."

"Yes, you _do."_

"No, I don't."

He did – this was something he finally accepted about four minutes later, when we had barely made it into the lobby. I smiled triumphantly as he admitted defeat and took the crutch from me. This way, we arrived home much quicker than I had begun to think we would.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" I moved around to stand in front of Dimitri. He glanced longingly at the living room behind me.

"I was going to sit down…" His voice trailed off at the stern look I was shooting him. Immediately, he sighed and began to reverse.

"Not a chance," I turned him in the direction of the stairs and gave him a small shove forward. "It's late and you need rest. I'll call Hans in the morning."

"What? Why?" Dimitri looked absolutely appalled that I would even suggest that he wouldn't be going to work tomorrow.

"Oh I don't know," I replied sarcastically and smacked his arm. "Maybe because you've been all evening in the emergency room and can barely walk? Get to bed before I make you."

Giving in, my husband began walking – limping – away, mumbling something about 'household abuse' and 'threats'. I chuckled and shook my head at his back, knowing that the next couple of weeks were going to be very difficult for stubborn Dimitri.

My stomach notified me to the fact that I was hungry, and I headed into the kitchen to make a snack for Dimitri and myself. I immediately halted in my tracks upon finding Luka awake in the living room.

"Luka, what are you still doing up? It's late." He glanced up at my entrance, looking worried.

"Ivan said I could wait up for you guys…is Dad okay?"

"He's fine, sweetie," I sat down beside him and allowed him to snuggle into my side. "The doctor's patched him up and he'll be as good as new soon. Where is Ivan?"

"He's on the phone to some girl in the kitchen," Luka informed me, finally allowing his tired head to rest on my shoulder as his eyes began to close. "He said he wouldn't be long."

"Okay well how about I tell Ivan that you said goodnight, and you go up to bed? You look tired."

"Will you tuck me in?"

"Of course, sweetheart." He struggled to stand up with his injured arm, and so I stood and pulled him to his feet. "I'll be up in a couple of minutes."

It was another hour by the time I eventually crawled into bed – between tucking Luka in, putting George back to bed, chatting with Ivan about his latest 'victim' and forcing Dimitri to lie down, it was safe to say that I was pretty damn exhausted.

Even despite this exhaustion however, sleep didn't come easy to me once again. My mind was plagued with thoughts about the non-existent baby we were no longer trying to have. I had now had a significant period of time to process our decision to stop trying (sort of), and I realised that this decision was something I didn't want. I wanted another baby, no matter how long it took or how much stress it caused. I knew that Dimitri wanted one too, but with Luka getting hurt, George's sudden bout of tantrums and work that was demanding every ounce of his energy, he had just gotten overwhelmed.

So while I was lying awake at god only knows what hour, I decided that I would make an appointment with my doctor to make sure everything was alright with me. I didn't really believe that there was, but a small part of me doubted and thought that it was my fault we hadn't conceived again yet. I also decided that this was something I wouldn't tell Dimitri. Not right away at least - he didn't need to have that as an added stress. If there did happen to be something wrong, of course I would tell him in due course, but if not – then there was no reason for him to even know that I went to get checked.

I happened to go to a well-known practitioner and so it came as no surprise to me that she had no vacancies to see me within the next couple of weeks. I rang in the morning before Dimitri had even gotten up and had been given in a date for some time in the near future.

"You're up early," Dimitri commented as he entered the room, not a minute after I had hung up the phone.

"I was hungry," I replied casually, picking up my cereal spoon. "I was just going to- Dimitri Belikov, _where is your crutch?"_

Dimitri was a good liar and had an even better poker face…but he seemed to have a difficult time hiding his annoyance at the fact that I had noticed he was missing one vital object upon arriving in the kitchen for breakfast.

"It's upstairs," he replied, sighing. He attempted to walk from the fridge to the table without flinching…unsuccessfully. "I don't need it."

"For god's sake, Dimitri," I groaned at him, dropping my spoon back into my almost empty bowl. "Why do you have to be so stubborn! Just use the damn crutch! It's not a big deal!"

"Mama, why are you angry?" Luka entered the room, George on his heels. Both were still clad in their pajamas as they joined us for breakfast.

"I'm not angry, sweetie, I'm frustrated," I shot Dimitri a quick glare, to which he rolled his eyes and returned to his cereal.

"Dada!" I saw what was about to happen, before it actually happened…but it was too late to stop it. George had toddled over to Dimitri and before I could do or say anything to warn him, George had wrapped his arms around Dimitri's injured leg and fell against it.

"_Fu_-" Impressively, Dimitri managed to stop mid-curse as he struggled to control the pain he was feeling. George had noticed a change in his demeanour, but didn't understand, and so he was still gripping Dimitri's leg tightly, but was now looking up at him in mild confusion…

That was until Dimitri physically removed his arms – the cause of the agony he was feeling – and moved George away from him. George had been walking for a couple of months now, but still wasn't what one would call an expert at it. That was why when Dimitri had removed his arms, George had lost his balance and toppled over, causing the first round of tears today.

"Are you okay?" I asked Dimitri as I rushed forward and picked up George to quieten him down. He hadn't fallen hard, or hit his head so I knew that he was fine, but the shock would more than likely cause him to cry for the next couple of minutes.

"What do you think?" Dimitri snapped a little harshly, hand hovering over his leg. He was clearly torn between gripping his leg to try and maintain the aching, and not touching it to save himself extra pain.

Instead of retorting and making the situation worse like I normally would've done, I chose to ignore him while he calmed down and focused my efforts on comforting George and helping Luka pour his cereal with one hand.

"Rose, can you please stop him from crying?"

"He's two years old, Dimitri! What do you want me to do?" I snapped back. Okay, so maybe my 'ignore it' plan wasn't going so well…George's wails had begun to get louder.

"I don't care, I just can't listen to it anymore!"

"I-"

I became suddenly aware of the fact that we were fighting in front of Luka and George…something we had never done before. George seemed to take the rise in voices as a reason to cry louder, while Luka sank into his seat looking upset.

"Luka, would you take your brother upstairs to get changed? I'll come to help him wash in a few minutes."

"You stay, I'll go." And with that, Dimitri stood and limped out of the kitchen. I glared at his back as he left before returning George to the floor.

"Why does Dad get mad at George?" Luka questioned, his voice low. "He never used to…is it- is it because of me?"

"Of course not!" I looked at my eldest son in shock. "Why would you think that? Your dad loves you both very much; he's just got a lot of pressure on him at the moment. I know it's not easy, but he'll be back to normal in no time…I promise." Thankfully, Luka looked reassured and went back to finishing his breakfast. The now-tranquil atmosphere had allowed George to finally calm down and I bent to wipe up his leftover tears.

"Now, now," I whispered to him, tickling his cheek. "No more crocodile tears, okay? I'd tread carefully if I were you…you seem to be getting yourself in Dada's bad book an awful lot lately, you know." George watched me blankly for a moment, before pointing to the cereal. I chuckled and settled him into his high chair. As the boys ate, I grabbed my phone and called for the backup I would clearly need today.

There was only one person who could help me out in this situation. Yes, it was the one, the only…

Ivan Zeklos.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I tried to have this up either Thursday or yesterday but I've only finished it now :) Enjoy my dearies, and please review! You know I love 'em ;) **

**Chapter 7**

"Knock, knock," Ivan announced his arrival while peeking through the front door. I immediately shushed him and pushed him towards the kitchen. "What's with the secrecy, Hathaway?"

"I don't want Dimitri to know you're here…" I replied, finishing my own breakfast. "Not yet, anyway. I'm going to need you today, Zeklos."

"Okay, how can I be of help?" He ruffled up Luka's hair as he passed and placed a quick kiss on George's, who had squealed happily at the sight of him.

"I need you to keep Dimitri hostage."

"Kinky."

"No, I-" I shot him a playful warning glance. "He's hurt and I called his boss; there's no way he's going into work today…but he's going to try. I need you to deter him – convince him to stay and rest. We're having a fight so he won't listen to me right now."

"Trouble in paradise?" Ivan guessed and scrunched up his nose.

"I guess you could say that," I finished the water I had been sipping on and then moved to get George cleaned up before I had to leave for work. George however, had seemingly decided that he wanted to stay in his high chair for as long as he possibly could, and began to kick up a fuss at the fact that I had removed him from it.

"What on earth has gotten into you?" I asked shocked as he kicked and screamed in my arms. Even Ivan looked surprised. I realised that George was two years old, and toddlers were susceptible to tantrums…but George had never really thrown fits over small things before.

"Why is he in such a bad mood?" Ivan asked, following us into the living room. I shot him a helpless glance.

"I have absolutely no idea. He's been doing this a lot lately – maybe it's just a phase. I hope it is anyway…" I shuddered at the thought of this lasting for years. "I'll see you in a few minutes; I just need to get him washed and dressed – Dimitri won't be able for it with only one healthy leg."

"I can do it," Ivan offered, holding out his arms to take a wailing George. "You go save some lives, or eat some doughnuts…whatever it is you agents do."

"Both…but unfortunately no lifesaving today; just a desk and a stack of paperwork so high that I can't see over it."

"I thought you guys had interesting jobs?"

"We do…when there are raids or emergencies," I explained, grabbing my keys and kissing George goodbye. "Hey, maybe I'll get lucky today – maybe someone will get murdered and they'll need me to solve it."

"That's the spirit," I chuckled as Ivan grinned his signature smile and left for work, suddenly thankful for the small break I was getting from home.

Work itself turned out to be even more boring than usual. No murders, no crimes, lots of paperwork _and_ no Dimitri…what on earth was I supposed to do for ten hours? Aside from actually trying to do my paperwork…

Of course, I was Rose Hathaway after all, and was skilled in both the areas of 'procrastination' and 'finding something to do so that you won't die or boredom.'

And so that was precisely the reason that when I left for home that evening, I had a stack of paperwork that was exactly the same height as it had been that morning (perhaps even higher) and seventy-two differently coloured paper airplanes with a variety of bad words and phrases on them.

_Day well spent_, I thought as I walked to my car with a bounce in my step before remembering what the atmosphere in my house was like at the moment. I decided to enjoy my last twenty minutes alone this evening, and blasted the radio before all too soon, I was pulling up outside of the house. Bracing myself, I made my way indoors.

* * *

IVAN POV

"Oh stop sulking, Dimka," I laughed and shoved a beer into Dimitri's hand. He didn't laugh along with me of course, but his slack hand held the alcohol I had given him. We were silent for a few moments as we listened to Luka and George playing with their toys upstairs. It was after George let out a particularly high pitched cry of excitement that I turned to my best friend.

"Does it hurt?" Dimitri took a swig from his beer before answering me.

"The pain medication helps, but it hurts to touch it." He didn't look at me as he replied, just continued to look at his beer. I truly hated to see my buddy so down, but sometimes Dimitri's stubborn moods irritated me. I didn't call him out on them, knowing that it would only succeed in getting him more pissed off.

I felt that Dimitri had every right to be frustrated with what was going on at the moment; he and Rose had been trying to have another baby for six months now with no result. The man was clearly worried, but I knew better than to try and get Dimitri to talk about his feelings. He only did that kind of thing with Rose; I was used to cheer him up…and babysit, of course.

I could see that he was upset about not having a baby just yet, but I'd wanted to smack some sense into him when I'd heard that he'd begun to take it out on Rose and the kids. _That_ was the moment that I'd realised that Dimitri was taking this harder than I thought he was; the man loved his children…more than that – he _adored_ them. It was clear just how much he cherished them every time he looked at them. When they'd walk into the room, his face would light up, a happiness only children could bring would shine in his eyes.

I'd already spoken to Dimitri two months ago and he had expressed his fear of not being able to conceive again…but I had assured him – just as I would now – that it would happen when the time was right.

As it turned out, we didn't speak about the troubles he and Rose were having conceiving. Instead, we spent the evening watching football, drinking some beer and talking about things that were not touchy subjects. All in all, Dimitri was in a much better mood when I'd suggested taking Luka out to the park so that he could spend some time with George. Seemingly, Dimitri was feeling pretty guilty about the way he'd acted towards George that morning, and agreed to my idea. Luka pulled on his shoes as Dimitri went upstairs to the two-year-old.

"So, how are you doing little buddy?" I asked Luka, who was walking beside me slowly. The sun had been shining mercilessly down upon us all day, but now a cool evening breeze was skirting across my skin, making the warmth bearable.

"I'm fine," he replied, but I couldn't help but think that his words contradicted his mood.

"You sure? You seem a little sad…" I trailed off, hoping that Luka would fill me in on what was wrong. He was silent for so long however, that I didn't think he was going to elaborate. But he did.

"Are Mama and Dad going to get a divorce?"

I stopped walking, looking at him in utter shock, clueless to how he even knew what a 'divorce' was.

"What? No! Why would you think that?" Luka looked down at his feet, hiding his face from me. The tone of his voice however, was more than clear.

"Cos they've been fighting a lot more and then this morning, Dada got really mad at George and then at Mama and he left the room…Dad _never_ gets mad at George!"

"Your dad's just having a hard time at work, and having a sore leg isn't very nice – you know all about that with your broken arm, I'm sure. He loves George and your mama very much."

"But…what about me?"

I was about to assure him that he was very much a part of his father's heart, but then Luka glanced up at me, the tears shining in his eyes. Realisation hit me like the force of a wrecking ball.

"Luka…" I knelt down so that I was level with him and turned him to face me. "Do you think your parents don't love you?" My heart ached when he didn't answer me. "Look at me, Luka. Why on earth would you think that?"

He sniffled quietly and I sat him on one of the many park benches. Instead of taking a seat beside him, I squatted in front of him so that I was closer.

"They were spending a lot of time with George and he's the baby – everybody loves George! And I missed Mama and Dada so I did something bad…and now Dad's getting mad at George and he's not getting bedtime stories either! It's my fault that Mama and Dada might get a divorce!" Luka sobbed at the end of his final sentence. I wanted to comfort him, and tried as best as I could…but something he had said caught my attention.

"What do you mean you 'did something bad?'" Probably subconsciously, Luka's eyes darted down to his arm, and just like that, I had my answer.

"You didn't _fall_ from the tree, did you?" Slowly, Luka shook his head. "Did you jump, Luka?"

He nodded.

"Luka…" I breathed, looking at him in shock. "_Why_ would you try and hurt yourself like that? You're lucky that you only broke your arm! Do you have any idea how upset everyone was when they'd heard you'd been hurt?"

"After I got hurt, everyone wanted to talk to me and make me feel better…Mama and Dad stayed home from work and we spent the whole day together…but now they're upset and mad and I don't want Dad to leave!"

"Luka," I lifted his chin so that he was looking directly into my eyes. "I want you to listen to me very closely…Your dad is _not_ leaving. Your parents are _not_ getting a divorce and they love you and George very, very much. I don't want you to ever doubt that, okay?" He nodded, swiping at his tears. "Have you told anybody how you feel?" Another head shake. I decided that the best thing to do now was to cheer the seven year old up and talk to both Rose and Dimitri as soon as I could.

"Come on, bud, let's go get some ice cream."

* * *

RPOV

"Did you stay with Luka all night?"

"Yes." I didn't have to turn around to see that Dimitri was concerned – it was evident from the sound of his voice.

I let out a sigh and turned around. Dimitri had his crutch with him this morning. "I can't believe this. How could this have happened? _Why _would he think that we don't love him?!"

"It's not completely our fault, Roza," Dimitri replied, taking a saucepan out from one of the cupboards. I sighed and began to help him, needing to do something with my hands. "His friend Henry's parents are getting a divorce – that's what caused him to start questioning things."

"But it's still our fault, Dimitri!" I argued, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to well up in my eyes. "We're the ones who are supposed to reassure him when he questions things, not make him worry more! Oh my god, I can't believe he hurt himself on purpose…he could have been killed, Dimitri, and it would've been our fault!"

"Rose. Roza, calm down." Dimitri moved around the counter and stood beside me. Despite still being a little mad at him, I let him hold my hands and reassure me, needing for him to soothe me. "Luka's fine; yes, he could have been more hurt – but he wasn't. Instead of focusing on what might have happened, we need to concentrate on making it sure nothing like it happens again."

After gathering myself together, I managed a nod. "You're right. But…He's never seen you get mad at George or even at me like that, Dimitri. It scared him; one of his friend's parents are getting a divorce - He thought you were going to leave us." Dimitri looked truly upset by this if the emotions in his eyes were anything to go by.

"Look," I gave his hands a small tug and we sat down on the small loveseat in the kitchen. I pulled him as close as I possibly could. "I know that you're feeling unbelievably stressed and frustrated about work, and about the baby – even though you're trying to pretend that it's not bothering you. I know it is. I can see it in your eyes every time you even look at me! But _please_ do not take out your anger on Luka and George…or even around them! I grew up in a broken household, Dimitri – I do not want that for my kids. If you need to let some steam loose, then use me as your verbal punching bag! Just leave them out of it."

Dimitri looked hurt, but I really didn't have it in me to make him feel better. He may not have meant to drag our boys into our baby-frustration, but I had said what needed to be said…and it brought him back to reality.

"Oh Roza…" Before I knew it, Dimitri had pulled me into his lap. "I'm so sorry. I've been such an ass. I never meant to hurt you or use you as a 'verbal punching bag,' and I especially didn't mean to take out my frustration on Luka and George. I'll make it up to them, I promise. Can you forgive me?"

"Promise not to let the fact that we haven't had another baby yet get to you? And if it does, do you promise not to let it eat you on the inside until the point where you literally explode?"

"I promise," he sighed and held me closer. "If I need to talk about it, I'll come to you."

"Good. Now kiss me – I missed you."

Our kiss turned into a lot more than just a kiss…but it was very early, meaning that there had been no chance whatsoever of us being walked in on by one of our boys.

"It's been a while since we've done _that_ in the kitchen," I commented, chuckled as Dimitri wound his arms around me and lifted me from the countertop. He held me off the ground for a moment while he kissed me, before setting my feet firmly back on the ground.

"It's been a while since we've done_ that_ full stop," he replied, not letting me go. I giggled as his mouth moved downwards and attached itself to my neck.

"Dimitri," I made a weak attempt to swat him away. "We don't have time for round two…"

"If we leave for work early, we'll have time to go to my office before my first meeting…"

"Wow, you are seriously horny today," I commented, removing myself from his arms to find my scattered clothes before we were joined by one of our two young boys.

"And you're not?" Dimitri's husky voice whispered in my ear as I was pulling on my bra and shirt. I chose not to answer his question…not directly at least.

"Hurry up and get dressed. We need to get to work."

* * *

**PS - reviewer number 146 will get a sneak peek to chapter 8 (and yes, I just picked a random number :P) If that person is a guest, then the 147th reviewer will get the sneakpeek ;) Happy reading :D And just so you know, chapter 8 is a good one :P**


	8. Chapter 8

***I said yesterday that reviewer number 146 would get a sneakpeek...but unfortunately some of you have disappeared and we didn't actually make it to 146 reviews...oh well! **

***However, I will pick a completely random reviewer from chapter 8 and perhaps give them a sneakpeek at chapter 9 :P This reviewer will not be a guest, for obvious reasons.**

**Enjoy chapter 8! :D**

**Chapter 8**

RPOV

"Okay, so can you tell me how long it's been since you started trying?" I nodded and picked at the sleeve of my shirt nervously.

"Seven months." Beside me, Dimitri leaned over and took my hand to calm me down; my anxiety about this particular meeting with my gynaecologist had started up this morning, informing me that I was more scared than I had realised to know what was going on. It was because of this that Dimitri had decided to take a half-day from work also and come with me.

"And when did you stop taking your birth control pills?"

"About ten months ago."

On and on she questioned me, before eventually turning to Dimitri and enquiring about whether he took any kinds of medication or whether either of us had a history of infertility within our families.

"Not that I know of," I answered after Dimitri shook his head. "But we can't be infertile, right? We already have two children." She nodded thoughtfully at me, as though was question was very interesting to her.

"It's actually more common for a person to encounter secondary infertility than not being able to conceive at all in the first place." Infertility…I really didn't want to hear that word.

"What is that?" Dimitri asked her, the look on his face indicating that he didn't like the sound of that word either. Nonetheless, he kept a firm grip on my hand, immediately making me feel better knowing that he was in this with me.

"It's when a couple has already managed to conceive a child – or two in your case – and has difficulty having another. It's actual quite common, yet we don't hear much about it as generally, couples are in denial of the fact that they are infertile."

"Do you- Do you think one of us has that?" Dimitri gave my hand another squeeze, once again reassuring me that he was here for me.

"It's hard to say without running some tests, but we'll talk about that later. Secondary infertility is generally caused by age, but you are both still under 35, so that suggests that your ages are not the problem. As I recall, you haven't had any miscarriages and neither of you have any chronic illnesses or STIs. Have you experienced any kind of impotence or ejaculatory problems?" The situation wasn't quite funny enough to laugh at Dimitri's cheeks, which had turned a total adorable light pink…Although I did smile and pat his leg.

"Hmm…" My doctor looked thoughtful for a moment and began flicking through some pages. With a sigh, she suddenly stopped and looked back up at both of us, who had been watching her intently.

"Well," she said, putting down her pen. "There's no point in jumping to conclusions. Seven months isn't considered a very long time to be trying to conceive. I would generally refer couples to a fertility clinic only after they've been trying for more than twelve months. And if those infertility tests are clear then I would suggest scheduling a laparoscopy to see if there is scarring of the fallopian tubes or some internal abnormality that may be causing difficulty in getting pregnant. For you two, however, I would suggest to keep doing what you're doing for now. In the grand scheme of things, you haven't been trying for a very long time, despite feeling like you have been."

"Okay thanks doc," I said, unsure about whether I felt better or not. While I had scheduled to talk to her about our conceiving problems, I had also arranged to have my general check-up done while I was here. Dimitri was excused and went to wait outside while I changed into my uncomfortable paper robe. Strangely enough, I had gotten used to these exams. Before getting pregnant with Luka, I had hated these appointments, but after having two kids, they didn't really faze me anymore.

The doctor did what she had to do and everything was going smoothly until…

"What's wrong?" I glanced worriedly at her face which had deep lines embedded into her skin, suggesting that she was deep in thought…I didn't really appreciate it when her fingers were deep _in me._

"I-Nothing's _wrong_, as such," she said, feeling around once more before removing her hand. "Your uterus just feels slightly swollen to me…"

"What does that mean?" I asked, feeling a little frightened. Suddenly, I wanted Dimitri back by my side to hold my hand. I glanced at the door and seemingly, she knew what I wanted and went to fetch him. While I had a few seconds to myself, I took some deep breaths to try and relax and forget about the fact that I was pretty much naked.

My gynaecologist, Alberta, returned a moment later with Dimitri on her heels. He was looking worried at having been called back in. he hurried over and took my outstretched hand.

"I was just saying to Rose that her uterus feels a little swollen," the doctor went on, walking over to one of her many cupboards and picking out some more equipment. There was a large pause as she focused on whatever she was doing with her hands, making me want to yell at her to tell what that meant.

"When was your last period, Rose?"

I watched her, feeling as confused as Dimitri looked. "About a month ago. Why?"

She didn't answer. "Did you two have unprotected sex anytime within the last two or three weeks?"

Slowly, I began to catch on to what she was implying. She turned to face us then, a clean needle in her hand.

"You mind if I take a blood sample?" I nodded eagerly, simultaneously holding out my arm and nestling my face into Dimitri as I felt the sharp sting of the needle entering my skin. The slight pain subsided after she had removed the needle with a sample of my blood inside. She handed me a cotton bud, which I pressed firmly against the bleeding dot on my arm. As Alberta labelled the sample and went to bring it to the onsite laboratory, Dimitri pulled up a chair and looked at me for an explanation as to what was going on.

"She just did a blood pregnancy test," I told him, holding my hand to his cheek. I tried unsuccessfully to suppress my hope. "She's saying that I might be pregnant."

Knowing that I was finished with my check-up, I changed back into my regular clothes and sat back up on the examination table while we waited for my doctor to reappear. In what felt like two hours later, she returned, although she had actually only been gone fifteen minutes. As she walked into the room, I studied her face closely, trying desperate to read the results of my test from her face…but it was pointless. The woman had a better poker face than Dimitri sometimes.

After a moment, she approached the two of us, where we were gripping each other's hands and waiting not so patiently for our answer. Just when my hope began to fall and my heart ache, a grin spread across her face.

"Congratulations!"

**8*8*8**

"Oh my god!" I squealed as Dimitri spun me around as soon as we had arrived in the car park. Normally I would have jokingly chastised him and demanded he put me down, but in that moment, I didn't think I could bear not to be in his arms.

Dimitri stopped spinning me and finally put me down…although he didn't let me go. Instead, he trapped my body between his and our car and caught my lips in a pretty passionate kiss.

"I can't believe it…" he whispered when we broke apart. Slowly, he reached his hand out and rested it against my abdomen. "I was really starting to think that this would never happen again."

"I was too," I replied quietly, resting both of my hands on top of his. "So…pregnant again, huh? Three kids, Dimitri…This means we're going to have three kids."

He smiled at the idea. "Hmm…Three's a good number. I like three."

"Yeah, that way if we ever have a family fight, it will never be a draw."

Dimitri laughed outright, making my insides feel mushy. I loved the fact that even after years of being together, Dimitri still held an inexplicable power over my heart, body and mind. I loved it even more now that the happy, relaxed mood that usually engulfed him had returned.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, Roza," he continued chuckling as he opened the car door for me. "But I should know by now to expect Rose-logic from you at any given stage."

I couldn't help the grin that spread over my own face as he rounded the car to climb into the driver's seat. A baby. I almost couldn't believe it myself. Finally.

"We don't have to go back to work, do we?" I asked him, pulling a face. He glanced my way and smiled, taking my mind that I had subconsciously placed over my lower abdomen.

"Nah, I don't think we'll get into too much trouble," He shot me a grin. "How about we pick up Luka from school instead?" I agreed wholly and rang Avery to tell her that she could stay at home with George.

Luka's accident was something that I had had a lot of trouble and guilt while processing. Dimitri had assured me on every occasion that it wasn't my fault, but I knew – to an extent – that it was. He'd been back at school two weeks now, and seemed to be settling back perfectly. No complaints from teachers (complaints weren't very likely anyway, considering that we were talking about Luka) and no more tree-falling/jumping incidents.

After Ivan had sat Dimitri and I down to tell us what Luka had confided in him, we both had made an enormous effort to not only tell him, but also _show_ him that Dimitri and I still loved each other very much, and we loved both him and George equally. I wasn't completely sure that he was convinced just yet – he was a lot happier than he had been before, that much I knew…but sometimes I'd catch him watching Dimitri and I intently, as though trying to judge for himself whether or not we were happy.

…And speaking of happy, the look of pure joy that crossed Luka's face when he exited the school building to find the two of us waiting for him was priceless. Without a moment's hesitation, Luka scurried across the yard and almost flung himself into me. Dimitri anticipated this and intercepted Luka's path, swinging him up into his own arms instead. Luka didn't seem to mind and gripped Dimitri's shoulders tightly with his one good arm; the other lay nestled in a sling against his abdomen.

"We had a half-day and thought we'd pick you up from school…is that okay?" I smiled, knowing that Luka only loved when we were the ones picking him up. Not that he didn't like Avery, he just preferred for us to be the ones.

Luka nodded happily and I grabbed his schoolbag which contained his homework. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dimitri eyeing it – as if he didn't want me carrying _anything_, even a seven-year-olds schoolbag that weighed next to nothing. I gave him a warning glare, and he said nothing.

I'd almost forgotten about Dimitri's protectiveness when I was pregnant.

Almost.

**8*8*8**

A couple of weeks passed and we managed to keep our news very quiet…although I was quite surprised that nobody seemed to notice the uplift in our spirits. Perhaps they had just assumed that we had managed to retreat back into our normal happy bubble. Nonetheless, we decided that it was definitely best to keep the baby-news quiet until I reached the twelve-week mark.

"This is cute," I commented as Dimitri and I were walking through a small cobble street. It was one of our days off and Ivan had offered to take the kids. "There's got to be something in one of these shops that we could get them."

Currently, we were searching for a wedding present for Sydney and Adrian – Lissa's cousin – who were getting married next weekend. We had gotten so caught up in baby-drama that we'd forgotten we'd actually have to get them something. Sydney had asked me to be a bridesmaid, along with Lissa and Mia. We'd had a couple of fittings which had cost quite a lot, so I was just glad that I would still fit into the dress that was being tailored for me by the time the wedding came around.

"Oh Dimitri look!" We'd been browsing around a small antique shop when, of course, I'd gotten distracted.

"Did you find something?"

"Not a present, no. But look!" I dragged him towards the door of the shop before pointing across the street at the baby store. "Can we go in? _Please_!"

I half-expected him to deny me, claiming that I would end up spending the money for the wedding present on baby clothes but to my surprise, he smiled and took my hand, leading me across the street.

"What do you reckon, comrade?" I held up a tiny outfit in each hand. One was blue, the other was pink. "Boy or girl?" The smile that crossed his face was truly adorable as he thought about each scenario.

"I think it's a girl," I answered before he could. He raised his eyebrows, clearly curious as to why I thought that. "I don't know why; it just feels…different this time around."

"Rose? Dimitri?" Startled, we turned simultaneously and found ourselves facing Lissa and Christian. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We were just getting a wedding gift for Sydney and Adrian," I answered half-truthfully, choosing not to look over at Dimitri in case I'd give away our secret. Lissa and Chris looked back at us in confusion. There was a question in Lissa's eyes as she watched me closely.

"In a baby store?"

"Eh…" This time I couldn't help but glance at Dimitri. He smiled and gave a small nod and I'm pretty sure my grin almost fell off of my face.

"You're not…?" Lissa pointed to my stomach and turned her head from my face to Dimitri's a couple of times. For a moment, everyone was silent, waiting for one of us to answer. Lissa had a strange expression upon her face; it was as if she didn't dare to hope.

"I'm pregnant!"

"You're kidding!" Lissa pulled me into a tight embrace. I squeezed her back, all the while aware of the 'congratulations' and the man-hug that Christian gave Dimitri. "How far along are you?"

"About six weeks now," I patted my stomach gently. Then something occurred to me.

"Wait…why are you guys here?"

* * *

***Duh duh _duh..._What do you think? Told you you'd like chapter 8 ;) Also...why are Lissa and Christian there?! Any guesses?**

***I've just realised that I never told you guys about my trip to California! ...and yet, I don't have time to right now :P Next update ;)**

***Finally, this story is only supposed to have 2 more chapters, however I may stretch it out ever so slightly so that there will be 3 or 4 chapters left :)  
**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, once again I'm in a rush, so you'll get to hear about my trip to Calif at the end of the next chapter! I'll remember to write about it this time, don't worry! :P**

**Thank you for the huge, awesome response I got to chapter 8 - I was getting reviews, follows and favourites almost by the hour :')**

**Congrats to DamphiricAngel2014 who was the random reviewer selected to get a sneakpeek and she seemed to enjoy the snippet I sent her so I hope you guys do as well...let me know ;) You know the drill :P **

**Another random reviewer will be selected to receive a snippet of chapter 10 before it's posted :P**

**Enjoy :D**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Our plan to keep our news about the baby quiet didn't turn out so well. A couple of weeks had passed since the day we had met Lissa and Christian in the baby store – the day where they had informed us that Lissa was expecting too. She was a little further along than I was, but only by a couple of weeks.

Or so we had thought. I was beginning to think that I may have further along than I originally thought.

"What do you mean?" It was late one night and I was getting ready for bed. Dimitri had put both boys to bed and was reading while waiting for me to join him. He of course, put down his book when I expressed my thoughts to him.

"I mean, just look at my stomach!" I had been studying myself in the bathroom mirror and turned so that he could see. "I'm massive! I look five months not two and a half!"

Normally Dimitri would calm me down and remind me that our doctor had confirmed that I was indeed only two and a half months…but this time, he stood and came closer, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I have noticed that," he said after a moment, sitting on the edge of the bath so that his face was closer to my swollen stomach. "Do you think we should move our appointment forwards? That way we could find out what's going on. You could just be carrying differently this time to when you carried Luka and George, but it would be nice to know."

"Hmm…" I agreed and suppressed a yawn. Dimitri took this opportunity to escort me to bed. Once he had tucked me in, he moved around the bed and turned off the lights before finally settling in himself and wrapping his arms around me from behind.

"My mom called me again today," he said quietly after a few moments of silence. "She's really happy for us; she wants to know if she can throw a baby shower for you and Lissa this time as Lissa has enough to worry about."

I smiled at my mother-in-law's antics; she had always wanted to throw a baby shower for Dimitri and I and considering the fact that Lissa was also pregnant, she now had the perfect opportunity to do it. "That's sweet of her. Will we see her soon?"

"She asked us around to dinner next Friday; I told her it depends on how you're feeling." I nodded and allowed another yawn to escape from my mouth. We didn't say anything else for a couple of minutes, and I thought that maybe Dimitri had fallen asleep.

"Dimitri?" I only whispered, in case he was asleep, but he answered almost immediately.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…I was just wondering..."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think that maybe we're having twins?" The thought had crossed my mind quite a lot in the past two weeks; personally, I thought it was the only explanation as to why my stomach was as big as it was so early on in my pregnancy. Honestly, I figured it had crossed Dimitri's mind too, but neither of us had wanted to make the suggestion in case we were wrong.

When he didn't answer, I turned over so that I was lying on my back. As soon as I had stopped moving, Dimitri's hand returned to my bump.

"You think you could be?" His voice was so quiet that I almost didn't hear it. I watched his hand making circular motions on my swollen tummy. It was soothing.

"I don't know…but remember when I said that being pregnant felt different this time? I think that could be why. I don't think I can wait another two whole weeks to find out. Do you think Alberta would move our appointment closer if we asked her too?"

"I would assume so," he answered, moving his body even closer to mine. I snuggled into his warmth. "Especially if we had questions or concerns-"

"Hold that thought." I yanked the covers from my body and hurried to the bathroom, just making it on time. As I threw up, I was aware of the fact that Dimitri was beside me, but I really didn't care. He had seen me like this way too many times now for me to be self-conscious. The fact that he had my toothbrush ready for me just showed how much of a routine this had become.

He hovered nearby as I washed out my mouth, waiting for me before returning to bed. Once back under the covers, I settled myself as close to him as possible, our baby – our possible _babies_ – nestled in between us. We didn't say anything else on the matter that night, as exhaustion took over us both – me in particular, I guess. Dimitri could stay up all night worrying about me if I let him. I, on the other hand, seemed to always be tired after a day of carrying around a baby that should only have been the size of a kumquat, but instead, looked the size of an avocado. I must have fallen asleep at some point then, probably due to combination of happy thoughts of our baby, Dimitri's hand gently rubbing my stomach and just plain tiredness.

For once, my sleep wasn't restless, as it had been for the past couple of weeks. I felt a little guilty as every time I woke, I'd wake Dimitri with my kicking and frustrated sighing…he didn't seem to mind too much, however; although I could usually see the lines of fatigue etched into his face the following morning.

When I awoke the next morning, I was alone. Not surprising, considering it was a Saturday so the boys would have woken early to watch tv and get Dimitri to make them breakfast. As I snuggled further down under the covers, I wrapped my arms around my tummy, feeling comforted by the sounds of movement downstairs.

I let myself doze for another twenty minutes before dragging myself out of bed. Since my stomach had started to grow, I had taken to sleeping in a pair of baggy sweats and one of Dimitri's t-shirts; figuring I didn't have anywhere to go today, I didn't bother getting changed and left the bedroom as I was.

"Morning," Dimitri greeted me with a kiss when I arrived in the kitchen. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good today," I gave a subtle rub to my tummy, meaning that I wasn't feeling nauseous. It was discreet because we had yet to tell Luka and George, despite having told almost everyone else last weekend. George was too young to understand anyway, but Luka hadn't seemed to notice that anything was different either. Everyone else however – our adult friends and Dimitri's family – had _definitely_ noticed the rapid and sudden growth of my stomach and so we had had to break the news early. Lissa – having had reached twelve weeks – told everyone that she too, was expecting another baby; which had resulted in twice the celebration and excitement.

I started shovelling the omelette that Dimitri had placed in front of me into my mouth almost immediately, regardless of how hot it was. My stomach didn't seem too concerned about feeling sick and continued to growl, making it known that it was not happy to be empty.

"Dada!" Dimitri just chuckled at me and went to pick up George, who was finished making a mess in his high chair. "Dada."

While he tended to George and cleaned him up, I moved my plate so that I was sitting next to Luka.

"Is there anything you want to do today?" I asked him. "Dad and I don't have any work that we have to do this weekend so we have _all_ day." This piece of information seemed to really excite Luka, and he began wracking his brain for something the four –five, maybe even six – of us could do together.

"Oh, can we go paintballing?" I groaned internally. It was bad enough when I reminded myself of not being able to do certain things because I was pregnant. But it was okay, because I had another excuse ready.

"George is a bit young for that, don't you think?"

"Maybe…but there's this place that my friend goes to sometimes with his family…it's got _lots_ of stuff to do!"

Luka went on about what sort of activities happened at this place, and I got lost at some point in the middle. As it turned out however, I didn't need to listen as Dimitri knew the place he was talking about; it was some adventure centre about an hour away by car. Figuring we'd make the most out of the fine Spring day, we dressed the boys, packed the car and set out as soon as possible.

Apart from having to stop a couple of times for me to get sick – privately, of course – or go to the bathroom, the journey there was pretty uneventful. Luka was practically bouncing in his seat as we pulled into the parking lot, and George…well, George was pretty oblivious to what was even going on – like usual.

The boys and I stayed by the car while Dimitri went to pay the entry fee and get a map and whatnot. When he returned, he swept George up into his arms and lifted him onto his shoulders as we walked through the entrance.

"What do you want to do first?" As Luka and Dimitri went through the list of activities, deciding which ones sounded the best and in what order they would do everything, I scanned the area around me with a smile on my face. Everywhere I looked there were children – laughing, running, playing, eating…they were everywhere. My hand moved to my tummy on its own; I really couldn't help the happy feeling that was welling up inside of me…the problem was, the happier I got, the more emotional I felt. Feeling stupid, I wiped at my tears and looked the other way in case Dimitri noticed. He was still busy with the boys so I figured I was okay…

I should have known his otherworldly observational skills would pick up on every small detail…

"Are you okay?" We had started walking again – Luka skipping a few feet ahead of us, with George trying to keep in step with him and failing. Dimitri had taken my hand and was currently rubbing circles into my palm with his thumb.

"I'm fine…they're happy tears, I swear." Dimitri seemed quite happy to let me snuggle into his side. I think he was glad that I was happy; considering the fact that we were both adventurous people, I think he felt bad that I wouldn't be able to do much today. But he didn't realise just how content I would be to watch Luka and George having fun and just being happy.

"HORSEY!"

I looked around to see whose child had just yelled at the top of his lungs…and cringed slightly when I realised that it had been mine.

I hurried forward and reached George just in time; he had been about to climb into an equestrian riding ring. Dimitri was laughing to himself as I apologised for him and pulled him away. George didn't give in however, and that was how Dimitri, Luka and George all ended up inside of the ring. I grinned at the identical smiles on both Luka's and George's faces. Being older, Luka was capable of sitting up on a small horse by himself. George on the other hand, had been given a pony of some kind – one that Dimitri had to lead around for him. The pony itself barely reached Dimitri's thighs.

Each time he passed, Dimitri would send me an amused smile when he heard me chuckling. I think he began to get tired around the twelfth circuit however, and I suggested that we keep walking to save him some of his energy – who knew what else they would want to do before the day was out.

Luka was more than happy to find out that there was in fact, a paintballing arena. I had to admit, as I watched him and Dimitri get suited up, I felt a little jealous. Although, one of us would have had to have stayed with George, whether I was pregnant or not, so I didn't mind that much. We were going to wait for them to finish, but George of course, grew restless and so I took him for a walk nearby. He spotted a face-painting table and insisted we approach it; he was surprisingly fine to make conversation with any stranger he met – including the nice lady painting a pirate on his face.

"Your turn, Mama," he announced after she had showed him the result. To humour him – and Dimitri, I guess – I picked out a rose and let the woman paint it on my cheek. George was grinning boyishly as we walked back the way we had come. Dimitri and Luka had just finished and were waiting for us as we approached them.

"Look at you," Dimitri bent and caught George, who had run towards him. "Let me guess; you're a…pirate?" George nodded and clapped his hands, before pointing at me.

"Mama's a flower!"

As I had guessed, Dimitri was amused by my choice of face paint, especially considering the fact that I didn't like anything that included roses.

"It's beautiful," he kissed my unpainted cheek and discreetly caressed my stomach. "I missed you."

I chuckled. "We've been apart for about thirty minutes!" Dimitri just shrugged in response and took my hand. George immediately latched on to his other hand and Luka walked a tiny bit ahead of us, trying to take in everything around him at once.

"Dada, I need the potty," George announced suddenly, tugging on Dimitri's arm. I quickly located the nearest one and pointed them in the right direction. Luka tagged along so I found an empty bench to sit for a minute. I was thoroughly enjoying my day out, however my feet were a little sore from walking so much. Taking advantage of the few minutes I had, I stretched out my legs and let them reenergise while I checked my phone.

I had two missed calls; one from Lissa and one from my doctor. I returned the doctor's one first to be told that Alberta had moved our appointment to Monday morning. Lissa didn't have any reason in particular to call me, she had just been checking in to see how I was doing. While I remembered to, I invited her and her family to the barbeque that Dimitri and Ivan had decided to have at our house next weekend, which she was ecstatic about. We were both so caught up in our own families that we rarely had time to see each other anymore, and so next weekend would be the perfect opportunity for us to hang out.

Putting my phone away, I decided to rest my eyes until they came back…during which, I had apparently fallen asleep.

"Tired?" I opened one eye to discover Dimitri sitting beside me. Glancing around, I spotted Luka and George playing in the jungle gym in the open park. Or well, Luka was…George had 'borrowed' a plastic shovel off of someone and was attempting to dig holes in the concrete.

"We can sit down here for a little bit if you want to rest up…you look tired." I nodded and nestled under his arm, which had wrapped itself around my shoulders. I let myself close my eyes and found myself being lulled to sleep by the sound of his heart beating…

Only to be woken when Dimitri jumped up and ran towards George; who had apparently been about to eat something he had found on the ground.

"Sorry," Dimitri apologised sincerely as he carried a squirming George over to our bench. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"That's okay," I took George into my lap and double-checked that he didn't have anything in his mouth. "Are you hungry, baby? You want some juice?" I pulled a box of juice from my bag and opened it for him. It wasn't until he was about halfway through the container that Dimitri pointed out his drooping eyes.

"I don't think you're the only one who's tired," he joked, taking the carton from George's slack hand. His small body was laying limp against mine, his head resting against my shoulder.

"He's done a lot of running around today," I smiled and stroked George's hair a few times. Dimitri waved Luka over. Luka wasn't overly happy about leaving, but changed his mind when we promised him an ice-cream cone on the way out.

I transferred George to Dimitri's arms, knowing that he would insist on that anyway, and instead aided Luka in finding the nearest ice-cream vendor – it wasn't that difficult; they were pretty much scattered all over the place.

After finishing our ice cream cones and doing one final trip around the park area, we headed back to the car where Luka joined George in the land of sleep and Dimitri held my hand as he drove home after our awesome family outing.


	10. Chapter 10

***I want to make a quick apology – I wanted to have this chapter completed quicker, however my copy of The Silver Shadows arrived and I've been a little preoccupied ;) PM me if you'd like to talk about it, but just so you know, I have about another 70 pages to go so no spoilers just yet :P**

***Congrats to va09 who was the random reviewer who got a sneak peek and seemed to really like the chapter so I hope the rest of you will to :)**

**Chapter 10**

* * *

"Oh my god…"

My words were barely audible as they escape my mouth in a breath. I couldn't see Dimitri as he was sitting behind me, but his hand tightened around mine and his body leaned forward, as captivated and drawn to the screen in front of us as I was. "That's our baby."

"Those," Alberta smiled knowingly and pointed to another shadow on the screen that I hadn't noticed right away. "…are your _babies_." I grinned at her and resisted the urge to stroke my stomach as it was currently covered in goo.

"I was right."

"Yes, Rose," she chuckled, moving the wand around on my skin to try and get a better image. "You were right."

"It's twins?" Dimitri repeated, looking at the doctor for clear confirmation. "We're having twins?"

"Yes, you are," Alberta laughed at the expressions on our faces; she was clearly enjoying our reactions. "Congratulations.

I looked at Dimitri, positive that the mixture of emotions on his face mirrored those on mine. We were both happy, obviously. More than that; I was ecstatic. But despite having guessed that I might have been carrying more than one baby, I don't think either of us had truly expected it.

Alberta kept us a little while longer; asking me general questions about my pregnancy so far – problems, vitamins, morning sickness, etc. She also explained briefly about the birth itself but decided promptly that we could discuss that closer to the time.

For the time being, we were going to spend a few hours being nothing but happy about our news before letting more worry and problems penetrate our joy. When we had reached the car park, Dimitri wrapped his arms around me and kissed me deeply. I had a feeling that had I not been quite as big as I was, he would have spun me around like last time. But he didn't, for fear of hurting the baby – _babies_ – and I didn't mind, as long as I was in his arms in some way.

"Your mom's going to be so happy," I grinned, not caring about the happy tears that were pooling in my eyes. Now that our news was beginning to sink in, I couldn't wait to tell everybody else.

"We should wait until the barbeque next weekend to tell them," Dimitri reminded me. "It's still early days and the later we tell them, the better."

"But comrade," I whined. "I can't wait until next weekend!"

"Yes, you can," he laughed and I suspected that he was expecting me to stomp my feet at any stage now. "Besides, we have something else important to do before we tell everyone else. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

I did know. I just wasn't sure how it would go exactly. Taking a deep breath, I braced myself.

It was time to tell the boys.

* * *

"Well?!" I watched Dimitri anxiously as he entered the living room. It was late one evening and we had finally decided to tell the boys after a couple of days of trying to build up the courage. Luka – being the eldest and a little more sensitive on the matter – had been told first. George – seeing that Dimitri was back – bounced a little on my lap and raised his little arms for Dimitri.

"He took it well," Dimitri told me, lifting George into his arms and handing him his pacifier. "Better than I thought he would actually."

"Really?"

"Really. He seemed quite excited about it actually," Dimitri rubbed my stomach – which had grown even bigger – lovingly. "He says he hopes they are girls; all of his friends have little sisters, including Paul."

"That's sweet," I smiled at the idea of Luka trying to look after his baby sister. "Bring George over, will you?" As soon as Dimitri sat beside me on the couch, George crawled from his lap into mine. Gently, I positioned him so that he was facing me. Telling George was a little different than telling Luka – Luka at least, had some understanding of what was going on…

George had absolutely no idea.

"Mama ate a baby?" George looked at Dimitri in shock, pointing at my stomach comically. I laughed and shook my head.

"No, sweetie, I didn't eat a baby," I smoothed back his hair. "The babies are going to live in here for a little while. When they are ready, we'll get to meet them." Momentarily, I actually thought that George was taking in what I had said, but when he started grasping for his pacifier from Dimitri once again, I realised that it may have just gone over his little head.

"Bed time, I think," Dimitri said chuckling. "Say goodnight, George."

"Night, Mama," he leaned forward and pressed a sweet kiss to my lips. Then to my utter surprise, he pressed his lips to my swollen tummy. "Night, babies."

And just like that, he hopped off the couch and headed towards the stairs. I cursed the damn pregnancy hormones that made me well up at this action, but was grateful for the couple of minutes I had alone while Dimitri put him to bed; it gave me a chance to pull myself together. Again, Dimitri had obviously noticed my sudden surge of emotions but thankfully, he knew me well enough to know that I needed some space; it was after ten minutes of failing to gain a hold on my emotions that I would usually crawl into his lap and allowed him to comfort me.

Dimitri knew this by now, and so waited until I came to him before pulling me into his lap and letting me lie back against him.

"I'm tired," I murmured to him, letting him cradle me. I felt him smile into my hair.

"We've had a long day," he patted my round tummy gently.

"I can't wait to meet them," I closed my eyes and rested my face in his neck. His hand was making slow, circular movements around my stomach, which were making me really sleepy. "But I guess this means no raids for a while, huh?"

When Dimitri tensed slightly beneath me, I glanced back at him curiously. "What?"

"It's just…" So help me god, Dimitri looked _sheepish_. "While we're on the subject of work, one of my superiors called me yesterday – they need me to take a short trip to Washington to help out some guys up there. Nothing too serious, they just need some extra men."

"And you're going?" I asked, although his answer was pretty obvious.

"I don't really have a choice; I do whatever they want me to do."

I sighed and managed to resist the urge to fold my arms stubbornly. "I guess it's not really your fault…when are you leaving?"

"Sometime next week," he pressed a kiss to my temple. "And I should only be gone a week at most – sooner, if I can. I don't like being away from you when you're like this."

I knew that when I was 'like this' meant when I was pregnant, and I didn't like Dimitri being away from me either, no matter how far along I was into a pregnancy. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling very tired anymore. Instead, I had the urge to grab Dimitri and start kissing him…which is exactly what I did.

"I thought you were tired?" he joked, although he wasn't stopping me from straddling his lap. If anything, he was all too eager to comply with what I quite obviously wanted. I disagreed incoherently against his lips, although the message was clear. "Bed?"

"No," I breathed back, pushing at his chest so that he was lying down on the couch. I positioned myself so that I was straddling him once again and then leaned forward to nibble at his earlobe and neck as I removed his shirt. "Right here."

* * *

"Hello, hello!" Ivan yelled over to us in greeting. Currently, he was standing by the barbeque in Olena's garden, drinking a beer. He had probably been waiting for Dimitri to arrive before starting to cook the meat. "How's my favourite pregnant lady?" I grinned and let him kiss my cheek.

"I'm good, and how's my favourite drunk bachelor?"

"Hey, I'm not drunk…yet, that is." Dimitri scoffed and left my side to get started on the meat right away. George had thrown a little tantrum before leaving which had made us a little late; everyone seemed to already have arrived and were waiting hungrily for their food.

"I'll see you guys in a little bit, ok?" I said as I spotted Olena and two of Dimitri's sisters in the kitchen. When I entered the room, I realised that Lissa was also there with her family.

"Aunty Rose!" Her son, Cooper, ran towards me and wrapped his little arms around my legs. "Hi!"

"Hello Mini Cooper," I grinned and ruffled his hair. Isabella was by my side too, tugging at my arm to get my attention. "Hi Isa."

"Hi!" She grinned and clapped her hands happily before pointing in between Lissa and me. "Mommy told me that you are both having babies! At the same time!"

"Your mommy's right," I chuckled, sharing a smile with Lissa. "Are you excited?"

She nodded enthusiastically before spotting Luka, Paul and Zoya playing in the garden. "Can I go play?"

"Of course," Lissa nodded and Isabella ran off, quickly followed by a toddling Cooper. "Have fun!"

"Roza…" Olena rushed forward, having spotted me. "How are you? My goodness, you're getting bigger every time I see you!"

"You really are," Lissa noted, looking from her bump to mine. "You're bigger than I am and I'm further along than you are!"

"I know," I chuckled and sat down to ease the aching in my back. "But there's a reason."

Both of them waited for me to explain, and grew even more curious when I said nothing.

"Chris," I said finally. "Would you get Dimitri for me? Tell him I just need him for a minute."

By the time Dimitri had arrived – which was less than two minutes later – all three of Dimitri's sisters had gathered around me, along with Olena and Lissa.

"We," I said, glancing up at Dimitri's questioning face. "…have some news." It was at this point that I think Lissa put everything together, because suddenly she was squealing and clapping her hands in excitement.

I laughed as everybody else just look more confused – apart from Olena; she was seemingly oblivious to anyone around her and was clinging on to my every word.

"We had a doctor's appointment last week," I continued, despite the fact that Lissa had started crying (happy tears, though). "And she told us that we're expecting twins."

Olena's hands flew to her mouth and her eyes widened and then watered up. Her reaction would have been funnier if I didn't feel so emotional all of a sudden too. Christian looked a little alarmed at suddenly being surrounded by crying and squealing girls, and didn't hang around for too long. After being hugged and kissed by his mother, Dimitri went back outside to finish cooking, Christian right on his heels.

"Oh Roza," Olena sniffed and dried a tear with the tea-towel that she had clenched in her fists. "That's so great; no wonder you're getting so big this early on!"

I glanced at Lissa, slightly worried that she felt I was stealing the spotlight; I wasn't the only pregnant one around here after all.

But when I looked into her eyes – eyes that were shimmering with unshed, joyful tears that made them look greener than ever – I knew that she was nothing but happy for me.

"That really is so great, Rose," She hugged me as best she could before resting one of her hands on my bump, and the other on hers. "They're all going to be the best of friends!"

I smiled back at her gleaming face.

"I'm sure they will."

* * *

I loved sleeping; that was no secret.

But there were some moments that I loved even more than sleeping, because despite being awake, they were even more peaceful.

This was one of those moments.

I'd been lying on the couch with the tv on – though I wasn't really watching it – trying to wind down after my day. Avery had gone home hours ago so I'd been on my own with two very energised boys. She'd offered to stay of course, but I'd made her go, knowing that she'd had plans to meet up with her friends.

Dimitri had left for Washington a couple of days ago, so I was left trying to juggle work, Luka, George and being pregnant. Avery helped out as best she could – even Ivan had stopped by for an hour to distract the boys while I sat down – but when night rolled around, everyone went back to their own lives.

This evening, both Luka and George had gone to sleep quickly after a bed time story, which I was extremely grateful for. Judging by the weight of my eyelids, I probably should've gone straight to bed then, but I didn't. I sat down on the couch to have some alone-time.

I realised with a start that I must have fallen asleep, as I was still on the couch. The sun had long set and everything was shrouded by shadows. Something touched my stomach and I jumped, stopping myself from screaming just on time.

"Oh my god, George!" It suddenly occurred to me why I had woken so suddenly – or more accurately, _who_ had woken me so suddenly. "What are you doing up?"

"I had a bad dream," he answered quietly. I turned on a nearby lamp and held my arms out to pick him up. He was too busy poking my belly button to notice however.

"What are you doing?"

"You said the babies are in your tummy…I'm trying to see them." I grinned to myself when he lowered his face to my belly button and tried to see in, like you would a telescope.

"I'm afraid you won't see them through there," I informed him, pulling my shirt back down and standing up. Carefully, I lifted him into my arms and started walking to his bedroom. "Tomorrow morning when you wake up, I can show you a picture if you want? The doctor took it for us to look at."

George nodded his approval of the idea, and I began carrying him back to his bed.

"Wait, Mama…" I paused at his doorway. "Can I stay with you tonight?"

Studying him, I could see that his nightmare had bothered him more than I realised, and it wasn't as if I could start crawling around under his bed and in his closets, looking for monsters. Dimitri would be gone for another couple of days, and I figured it would be quite nice to have some company beside me in my own bed.

"Okay then, but just for tonight…and don't tell Dada."

**8*8*8**

* * *

**AN – MY TRIP**

**So originally, I was going to be very brief about this but a lot of you actually seem to have genuine interest so I'll go into a little more detail :)**

**My trip started off at about 8am Irish time and we left for the airport. From Shannon, we got a flight to London, then another flight from London to Newark and finally, a flight from there to San Francisco :) In Newark, we were told that our luggage had been lost along the way…so I've got to admit, my first impression of America wasn't really that great. (That changed, don't worry :P)**

**After more than 26 hours travelling non-stop, we arrived in San Fran and were picked up by my friend and her father. (It was about 1am Californian time). We arrived at my friend's house at about 3am and went to bed after about 30 minutes.**

**Jetlag didn't seem to affect me at all when we arrived, but we took it easy all the same. We went to a forest of Redwoods (tallest tree species, I believe?) which was pretty awesome. We took a ride in my friend's bright orange bronco, met some of her friends, went to a bonfire and ate a s'more for the first time (to anyone who's never had one – you're really missing out; this things are even better than they sound!). Hmm…what else? I saw squirrels, hawks, hummingbirds and vineyards all for the first time too! Oh, and I ate a wafflecone; which are just plain amazing. **

**So I spent the first 4 days at my friend's house, before we all travelled down along the coast. They had a family house in San Luis Obispo (SLO) and so we stopped there for a night before continuing on to LA. We spent 2 days in LA – one at Disneyland, the other in Hollywood, before travelling back up to SLO once again. We spent about a week in this house; which was totally gorgeous. Ice cream, pizza, frozen yoghurt, beaches, sunbathing, farmer's markets…you name it :P It was awesome – and holy crap, the sky is actually **_**blue**_** in California! I mean, I was aware that the sky was blue obviously, but you never see it at home! It's either raining and covered with clouds. **

**Towards the end of our trip, we travelled back up to my friend's hometown where we spent our last 2 nights. Two days into our trip, our luggage arrived which was great, but in the meantime, we'd had to go to Walmart (for the first time) to get essentials and whatnot :/**

**I can't think of anything else off the top of my head apart from the fact that our travelling time was a little shorter on the way home, but the jetlag was much worse! We flew from San Francisco to Calgary, from Calgary to London and then from London to Shannon. Altogether, it was about 22 hours travelling back home. Also the idiots who transfer luggage from the plane to the conveyer belt broke the handle and wheels off my case on the way back home, which was a complete pain in the ass. **

**But all in all, the good parts of the trip most definitely trumped the bad :D And despite never wanting to see a plane again after all of that travelling, I'd definitely do it again :')**


	11. Chapter 11

**I have a feeling you guys will like this chapter too… It's a little longer than normal, so let me know what you think :)**

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

"Hey, Rose. Are you alright?"

I didn't bother turning as Eddie approached me from behind; moving excessively was way too much effort.

"I'm fine," I grumbled, letting him help me up the remainder of the stairs at work. "Why did they have to move Dimitri's office up another floor…"

Eddie didn't say anything else as he walked by my side – slowly, of course. Being thirty-six weeks pregnant with twins didn't make climbing stairs or even walking on flat surfaces an easy feat these days. I'm pretty sure he was terrified that he'd say something that would set me off. Mason, however, didn't seem to have any such qualms.

"Hathaway!" He grinned and started walking on my other side. "What brings you here? You look like you're about to pop, by the way."

"Don't be surprised if I do," I muttered, trying to ignore the ache in my feet as I pushed myself forward. "I need Dimitri; have you seen him?"

"I think he's in a meeting," Mason replied, pointing to one of the many conference rooms. "I think it's important. Can you wait?"

"I don't think I'm the one you should be asking," I replied, making them share a confused look. "Can you get him for me?" Pain shot through my lower abdomen and I stifled a cry. Both Eddie and Mason immediately look terrified. I gave Mase a half-hearted shove in the direction of the meeting room, unable to push him much harder because of the contraction I was trying to bear.

Mason disappeared, and I presumed he had gone to fetch Dimitri. My guess proved right when not thirty seconds later, Dimitri had left his meeting and was by my side.

"Hey, Mason said-" This time, I did cry out in pain and had to use the nearest piece of furniture to keep myself upright. Dimitri looked panicked for a only a moment before a determined look took over his face. In the blink of an eye, he had pulled up a chair and sat me down on it. "Are you okay?"

"I needed to get out of the house for a while," I took a deep breath as the pain subsided. "So I decided to take a walk around some shops but while I was there, my water broke and then I started getting contractions and- oh!"

My hands automatically made their way to my stomach, as if putting pressure on it would ease the pain. It didn't.

"How close are you contractions?" Dimitri asked me, the panicked look taking precedence once again.

"Every couple of minutes…these babies are coming _now_, Dimitri." I tried not to panic myself. I felt a little better now that Dimitri was with me; he would take care of everything. All I had to worry about was having the babies…and hopefully, _not_ having them before we made it to the hospital.

"I called an ambulance," Eddie held up his phone for extra emphasis. "They'll be here in a few minutes."

"Can you hold on until then?" Dimitri knelt down in front of me, rubbing a hand on my knee comfortingly.

"I don't exactly have a choice now, do I?" I retorted, taking a few more deep breaths. "But there is no way I'm having these babies at work!" By now, we had begun to attract attention from mine and Dimitri's colleagues and a crowd was beginning to gather around us.

I'm pretty sure people began to offer their help, but honestly, I was too preoccupied with my contractions – which were getting increasingly more painful – to notice who these people were.

Just when I was beginning to feel alarmed, the paramedics arrived and transported me as quickly as possible into the back of the ambulance. Dimitri held my hand and murmured words of comfort on the entire way to the hospital; the whole time, he maintained a calm composure, but I could tell that he was definitely feeling as anxious as I was. After all, we had been told that it was rare for a woman to carry full term when carrying twins, but I was only just eight months pregnant…neither of us were expecting me to go into labour quite so soon.

Then again, with my history of having babies pre-term, maybe we should have.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I was prepped and given a gown – which Dimitri helped me put on – within minutes. It was clear that my labour was moving fast, but I hadn't realised how close we had cut it.

Alberta had only just arrived when she announced that it was time.

"Time?" I looked at her in shock. "Time for what?"

She glanced at me as she began quickly preparing, her expression was amused. "These babies are ready to be born, Rose. Don't worry; the three of you are in good hands."

While she finished getting prepped and called a team in to assist her, Dimitri took a strong hold of my hand once again. He gave my hand a firm squeeze, letting me know that he was there.

"Ow, ow, ow," I winced as pain coursed through me once again; more powerful than before. It was only when I began to feel a pushing sensation that I alerted Alberta. She was between my legs immediately, guiding me through every minute of labour.

This continued for a while – the pain, the pushing, the yelling (done by me, of course), the small moments of relief between contractions before it all started up again until finally…

The sound of a cry rang throughout the room.

I fell back into my pillow, feeling momentary relief and happiness as I saw my baby for the first time. They brought him to my chest almost immediately and I cradled him with the help of a nurse.

"Hello, baby boy," I whispered, kissing his head, which had a thin tuft of dark, matted hair covering it. "It's nice to finally meet you." Dimitri leaned closer and I could practically feel the happiness radiating off of him as well. A content smile spread across my face as his fingers caressed the cheek of our new son gently.

The nurse came forward then and took him from us to weigh, measure and clean him up. I watched in awe as she did so, fascinated by the crying baby in her arms. I was just relaxing back into my pillows when that same pushing feeling returned…and I remembered that I was only halfway through this birth.

"Shit…" I gritted my teeth as the sensation became unbearable. Alberta was back, a concentrated look on her face while Dimitri lent me his strength once again. Both of them offered words of encouragement now, but I didn't really need them. After seeing our first baby, I was even more anxious and determined to meet the next one as soon as possible and have the twins both together again.

"That's it, Rose," Alberta was saying. "Just one more final push, ok?"

And then, my favourite sound in the whole world sounded for the second time that day.

Our second baby had arrived.

"Congratulations," Alberta smiled happily at us, carrying the baby over to me. "You did excellent, Rose." I offered her a smile before turning my attention to my children.

"Oh my god," I breathed as both babies were gently positioned into my arms. "They're so tiny…"

"I know," Dimitri said quietly, looking worried. He glanced at Alberta. "Are they okay?"

"It's normal for twins to smaller than a singleton baby when born – they've been sharing a home for the duration of the pregnancy after all. Not to mention, they're just over a month premature. They'll be checked more thoroughly once you go into recovery, Rose, and they'll continue to be closely monitored throughout the night."

I nodded my understanding and returned my gaze to the two bundles in my arms.

"Comrade, the number of our children just doubled…"

"I know," he chuckled and leaned as close as he possibly could. "Four boys…"

"What on earth are going to do?" I joked, kissing them both of the forehead, before kissing Dimitri. "You know, when we woke up this morning...I had no idea that we'd be doing this today."

"Me either," he replied, sounding as though he was in a daze. "If I'd known, I never would have gone to work. I can't believe you weren't even at home when it happened. Weren't you scared?"

"Terrified. That's why I had to get to you…although I think the sales assistant was worse than I was. Plus, going to the office would have been quicker than going home. Oh, and speaking of home, you'd better ring Avery and let her know where we are – I told her I'd only be twenty minutes; she must be wondering where on earth I've gotten to."

"Will do," he pressed a kiss to my temple. "In a few minutes. Then I'll make the calls."

* * *

It wasn't long until I was moved to a separate recovery room. Despite being excited about the arrival of the twins and wanting to spend every minute with them, I was pretty damn exhausted after today's events. The babies were taken to the nursery where they would be closely monitored until I woke up.

I didn't exactly feel well-rested when I woke, but I definitely felt refreshed and had an urgent longing to have my babies back in my arms. I pressed some red button located by my left shoulder and within minutes, a nurse arrived to check me over. Deeming me relatively okay, she organised to have me put back in a ward.

Dimitri didn't come around for an hour or two after that – by which time, a midwife had already helped me breastfeed both babies for the first time. He arrived late-evening, after putting Luka and George to bed at home and leaving Ivan to babysit. I think he was sorry to have missed them feeding, but I reminded him that he would have a million more chances to see it.

"They're so perfect," he whispered to me. He had positioned his chair in between my bed and the two cots located nearby. When I'd originally been placed in this room, I'd been sharing with a woman who had a baby boy two days ago. She'd been discharged this evening, and so we had the room to ourselves. Not that it mattered hugely – we still had to be very quiet; the babies were both fast asleep.

"Aren't they?" I smiled as I watched him tuck their blankets in tighter. "How were Luka and George?"

"I think Luka was a little disappointed – he seemed to have his heart set on a girl…but he's still excited all the same. He said he can't wait to show them how he can cycle without stabilisers now."

I chuckled tiredly. "And George?"

"I don't think he really knows what's going on; but he's been wondering where you are. I told him you'd be home soon, but he's still looking for you." I felt sad at this. I may have been happy to have the twins, but George was just barely three – he was still a baby himself, and I missed cuddling him like crazy.

"I'm sorry, Roza, don't be upset," Dimitri wiped a tear that I didn't know had fallen from my eye away. "He's fine, really – they both are. Besides, you might even be discharged by tomorrow evening if everything is alright."

"I hope so," I wiped away the last of my tears, cursing my post-birth hormones. "I'm not sure I could wait in here any longer than that."

**OoOoO**

Thankfully, I didn't have to. We brought Aleksandr and Nikolai Belikov-Hathaway home the following evening after all three of us had been declared healthy enough to leave. Despite being premature, the twins seemed perfectly happy and healthy – although Dimitri and I had been briefed about possible complications and their symptoms which we should look out for just in case.

My hormones were still fluctuating pretty badly and my crying started up once again when we pulled up at the house. Seeing Olena's car parked in our drive had set me off, and it only got worse when I noticed the others.

"Are you sure you're okay with this? They only want to say hi and congratulations but if you're too tired…" Dimitri trailed off as I had already begun shaking my head.

"No, no, it's okay," I wiped furiously at my eyes, trying to control myself. "I want to see them. Do you need help?" Dimitri denied my help (of course), claiming that he had everything under control – although he seemed to struggle slightly with the two baby carriers, the baby bag _and _my hospital bag. I grabbed my pillow from the backseat and insisted on taking my overnight bag myself. He started to resist but when I argued that it would be safer for the babies, he had to back down. Triumphantly, I walked ahead and held our front door open for him. Inside, I was met with a chorus of 'welcome homes' and 'congratulations'.'

"Mama!" George pushed his way through Adrian's and Christian's legs and scampered towards me. It hurt a little to do so, but I crouched down anyway and engulfed him in a tight embrace. His little arms stayed wrapped around me for a long time, and I suspected that he'd missed me more than Dimitri had let on.

Once George and Luka had met their little brothers officially, I was hugged and greeted by everyone else in the room – and by 'everyone,' I meant _everyone_. Even Lissa – who was eight and a half months pregnant.

"Don't get up," I warned her, seeing her struggling to stand. She smiled as I approached her instead.

"I can't believe you had yours before I had mine," she joked, stroking her very swollen stomach lovingly. "I don't know why, but I had a feeling that we'd go into labour at the same time, be baby buddies at the hospital and then they'd all have the same birthday!"

I laughed, stifling a yawn that had crept up on me. "Sorry, Liss. I couldn't hang on – those two were too eager to get out."

"It's okay," she chuckled along with me. "I don't have that much longer to wait. Can I see the twins?"

"Of course." Dimitri – who was trying to keep his mother, his sisters, Sydney and Mia from smothering the new-borns – seemingly heard what Lissa had asked and used this as an excuse to remove the carriers from his family's grasp. He placed them on the ground in front of our feet.

"They're so precious," I smiled up at Sonya who had moved to sit on the arm of the chair beside me.

"Who's who?" Lissa asked me, and I studied the two babies in their carriers closely. Because they were still so new, we obviously didn't know them very well, and so the only way I was able to tell them apart just yet was by their clothing.

"Alex is the one in blue," I fixed his little blue hat – which Olena had made for him – as I spoke. "And Nik is the one in green." Nikolai's hat was identical to his brother's, only it was soft green in colour. The hat itself didn't need fixing, but I felt the need to straighten it anyway.

"Who would've thought," Sydney mused, taking a seat on the floor beside the baby carriers. "…that by the age of just thirty, Rose Hathaway would have four children – four_ boys_, nonetheless."

"Yeah, well, you're next, Miss Newlywed," I retorted, giving Adrian a side glance. He was mid-conversation with the rest of the guys. "From what I've heard, you two have been pretty busy since the wedding – I'm surprised you weren't pregnant along with Lissa and I."

Sydney blushed, never having been one to discuss her private life…something Mia and I always loved to exploit.

"Leave her alone," Lissa rolled her eyes, smiling as though she was remembering the past – before babies and husbands were around and it was just us four girls. Mia and I giggled as Sydney shot Lissa a grateful look. I felt nineteen all over again.

Except now, I had two new-borns – something Aleksandr decided to remind me of and began wailing pretty loudly, successfully waking up Nikolai and bringing him to tears too.

"I think that's our cue to leave," Karolina said jokingly, standing up. She approached me and kissed my cheek. "Congratulations – I'm so happy for you. See you soon, ya?"

"Of course," I bade goodbye to everyone else as they all filed out of the house. Before long, it was just Dimitri, Luka, George, Alex, Nik and I.

"I think they're hungry," I unstrapped Alex from his carrier. "Well, Alex is anyway. I think Nik's only crying because Alex is."

I fed Alex first while Dimitri walked around the room with Nikolai. The midwife had taught me ways to breastfeed both twins at once, but it was a skill I had yet to master. For now, I would stick with one. It didn't take us long to figure out that Alex was the hungrier baby – going as far as to feed every thirty minutes. I tried to feed both babies at the same time, but Nik only wanted to eat once every hour…

Their chaotic eating habits resulted in many sleepless nights - on both mine and Dimitri's part – as usually when one woke, the other would too and both would cry, regardless of whether they were hungry or not. That meant that I needed Dimitri to calm one baby down, while I took care of the other.

"It's a good job you have some time off," I muttered to Dimitri one day. It was early afternoon, and we were both slumped over the kitchen table in our pyjamas after one hell of a night. "-otherwise you'd be falling asleep in your meetings…or even on a raid."

Dimitri didn't look capable of answering, and I was surprised when he suggested we take a nap on the couch while the twins were napping. It sounded good in theory…but that rarely worked out for us.

"Mama!" I winced at George's shout and glanced worriedly at the baby monitor. I waited in dreaded silence for a moment before breathing a sigh of relief.

"George," I beckoned him towards me as he entered the room, his sippy cup in hand. "You can't yell or you'll wake Nik and Alex and they'll be upset…you don't want to upset them, do you?" George shook his head furiously and then held up his cup.

"Can I have juice?" He spoke very quietly this time for which I was grateful, but I surprised myself for suddenly feeling jealous of Dimitri, who had fallen into a deep sleep already.

"Of course, baby," I pushed myself up off of the couch and led him into the kitchen where I fetched him some of his favourite juice. I had just returned to the couch and snuggled under Dimitri's arm when I felt a tugging at my arm.

"Mama, when Luka home?"

"In a few hours, George," I replied, unable to keep my eyes open. "Avery's going to pick him up from school and then she's going to stay for a little while." George didn't say anything else, so I figured he'd gone away to play…then I felt more tugging at my leg.

"Mama will you play?" Frustrated, I opened my eyes and almost snapped at him…but then I realised what I had been about to do. George – my three year old – was being considerate enough to whisper for me and for his baby brothers, and I had been about to give out to him because I was overly tired. He didn't seem to notice a change in my demeanour, and continued to hold up one of his toy trains while looking at me hopefully.

"Sure," Carefully, I slid down onto the floor beside him and let myself relax in a different way – by playing with trains and my toddler. I watched in awe of him as even after half an hour of playing, George was still being quiet for all the sleeping people in our house. It occurred to me suddenly that I'd always considered Luka to be the 'good' one – which he was of course – but George was pretty damn awesome himself. I smiled at the thought of them growing up to be great people. Dimitri and I were really trying our best to be good parents, but it was often easy to doubt.

"You're a good boy, you know that George?"

His cheeky grin was the only indicator he gave that he'd heard me, and then he returned to his trains.

* * *

**Did I guess right? Did you like this one? :P Sorry about the twin boys – but that was always my plan. Sorry to disappoint if **_**really**_** wanted twin girls – or even one girl :P**

**Also, I'm sorry but the next chapter will be the final chapter of this series...**


	12. Chapter 12

**You might be happy to hear that I've decided to write a 2-part epilogue…I love writing these characters as much as you guys seem to love reading them :) **

**See you at the bottom of this page – Enjoy! (don't forget to review :P)**

* * *

**Epilogue part 1**

**Chapter 12**

My day started out pretty good; it was Friday, after all. This week had been my first week back at work after having the twins and I was feeling good. They were just under six months old now and every bit as adorable as they were the day they had been born. I just needed to get through today before returning home to my beautiful family and getting ready for the date I had planned with Dimitri. With four kids, the time we usually spent with each other was now spent feeding, changing diapers, cleaning, reading bedtime stories and so on. I had been planning this evening for weeks now, and could not be more excited about it.

However, disaster struck after lunchtime. I had been sitting at my desk, ploughing through more paperwork to lessen the load for the weekend, when my phone began to ring. My stomach sank upon seeing that it was the school's number. My mind had not even had the time to go through the possibilities of what could be wrong before I had pressed the phone up against my ear.

"Rose Hathaway speaking." I waited with baited breath for a response.

"Ms Hathaway? This is Anne Conway – the principal of your son's school. I am calling because there has been an incident involving your son and I wish to speak to yourself or your husband most urgently."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," I replied, having enough restraint to not ask what had happened – this woman was pretty scary. Although, for some odd reason, my mind took a few extra moments to understand what she was saying, and it was after another couple of minutes to truly process what she had said. I went to fetch Dimitri and before long, we were both in the waiting room area of the school.

"Ms Conway will see you now." I gave a small nod to the receptionist who directed us into the principal's office. Inside, I faced the middle-aged, frightening woman. In front of her, with his back to me, was Luka.

"Thank you for joining us, Ms Hathaway," The stern woman glanced up at me at my entrance, her cold eyes giving me a brief scan from head to toe.

"Please," I moved towards Luka, concerned about his slumped shoulders. "Call me Rose. Is everything alright?"

"Well, Ms Hathaway," I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her formalities. Had he been able to see me from where he was standing, Dimitri would have been proud, I was sure of it. "Please take a seat. I'm afraid we've had a rather serious incident happen."

"You said that on the phone," I replied, perhaps a little shortly. But my annoyance disappeared completely when I glanced over at my son. "What happened?!"

Luka's face – although directed almost completely at the floor – was clearly harmed. On the cheek that I could see, there was a nasty-looking graze. Another one decorated his forehead and I spotted a bleeding cut on his lip.

When I reached out to angle his head towards me, Luka glanced up at me with eyes that threatened to spill over with tears.

I was about to pull him into my arms and soothe him when Ms Bitch intervened.

"Your son, Ms Hathaway," She announced loudly. "-was in a fight today."

"I-" I raised my eyebrows as I glanced, completely dumbstruck, from her to Luka. "A fight? What for?"

I had directed my question at Luka, but Ms Conway clearly felt as though he was incapable of answering for himself.

"Luka was seen attacking a fellow student in the yard today during recess-"

"It wasn't my fault! He started it!" Luka's sudden outburst seemed to shock her. It stunned me a little too, if I was being honest. Luka had always been so calm, so collected…so like Dimitri. This outburst was…well, like one of mine.

"It is irrelevant of _who started it_," She shot back. I glared a little at her condescending tone. "The fact of the matter is, Luka Belikov, that you were seen using acts of violence to physically hurt a fellow classmate of yours. Incidents such as this will not, I repeat, _not_ be tolerated at this fine institution."

Luka piped down at the rise of her tone, but I could still see the indignation in his eyes.

I was pretty sure Dimitri had been about to speak, but I couldn't help myself.

"Where is the other student?" I asked her, perhaps a little defensively. "Shouldn't he be in here as well?"

"The other child has been brought to the emergency room with a suspected broken rib," I immediately regretted asking. "Although _that_, Ms Hathaway, is not really of your concern. _Your_ concern, is sorting out the issue of your violent son."

"_Violent_?" Dimitri's hand squeezed my knee in warning. I was quickly losing patience with this woman. I took a deep breath. "He is not 'violent,'" I replied angrily, glaring at her. "And if violence is the problem here, that other child should be in here as well. Look at his face-" I gestured to Luka, who had sunk back into his chair as my voice began to raise itself. "-You cannot sit there and tell me that he did that to himself! That he was the only one fighting!"

"Self-defence is an important skill to have."

Silence enveloped the room as her words sunk in.

"Self defence? They're _eight _years old! Children fight – that's just the way it is! I'm not condoning his behaviour, but it seems totally unfair that my son is the one getting into trouble when clearly-" Once again, I pointed at Luka's face. "-Two were involved."

"Ms Hathaway, I'm going to have to ask you to calm yourself or to kindly leave my office." It was getting much more difficult to control my anger as my fuse was beginning to reach breaking point. Dimitri's hand moved from my leg and took my hand.

"Rose, calm down," he said quietly, before turning to face the principal. "I'm sorry for the trouble that this has caused you. We understand that the school does not tolerate violence and I assure you, this will be dealt with very seriously."

"As it should be," she added pompously. I briefly wondered how big the stick was that someone had shoved up her ass. "As you said, Mr Belikov, we do not tolerate bullying of any form here-" Dimitri sensed my defiance at the word 'bullying' and promptly squeezed my hand hard.

"However-" she went on. "Because this has not been a reoccurring matter with your son, I am going to let him off with a warning and two detentions." I made no reaction to her statement while Dimitri nodded. His face held no expression. "If this happens again, I will not hesitate to expel your son."

"Of course," Dimitri said, again his face was expressionless. "But I assure you, this won't happen again."

"Luka," she turned to him. "I hope you understand how lucky you are; there are not many students who would get a second chance here." He nodded, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but in this office right now. I didn't blame him. If I'd been him, I would've punched her a long time ago.

"Alright then," Ms Bitch straightened up in her throne. "Thank you for coming, and I'm sure the parents of the other child will be in contact. Good day."

I felt miffed at having been dismissed so quickly, although Dimitri kept a strong hold of my hand as he stood. "Thank you for your time."

Luka hopped off his chair and scurried to my side before leaving the building with us. We were all silent on the way back to the car, Luka looking like a scolded dog with his head down and his tail between his legs.

The car ride itself was also quiet, and I studied Dimitri from the side. His face still held that stoic expression, but I could see a fire within his eyes.

Nobody said anything as we arrived at the house; I only nodded to a surprised Avery when we entered the house. She gasped at the sight of Luka's face and looked as though she wanted to know what was going on, but instead, she picked up George and carried him upstairs to where the twins were probably napping to give us some privacy.

Dimitri – probably needing to calm down – continued walking until he reached the office. I felt it best that he was left alone for a little while to cool off. Instead, I turned to face Luka.

With a deep sigh, I took a seat on the couch and gestured for him to come closer. Dragging his feet, Luka made his way towards me, fresh tears glistening in his eyes.

"Oh baby," I sat back and pulled him into my lap, cradling him as best as I could. He was getting pretty big. "Ssh, sweetheart, it's okay…"

Luka looked truly shocked. "Aren't you mad, Mama?"

I shook my head gently at him, grabbing a tissue from my purse. "No, I'm not mad." I wiped away his tears first before cleaning the small cuts on his skin. "I am surprised though – you never fight."

Luka didn't answer. He just looked down at his feet again.

"You want to tell me what happened?"

Luka took a deep breath and then looked up at my face indignantly. "We were talking about superheroes and I said that you and Dad were like superheroes because you caught bad guys and solved crimes and stuff…and this one boy – Jack – called me stupid cos he said superheroes weren't real and I was a baby if I believed in those kinds of things."

"So you hit him?"

"No, then he started saying that I was liar cos there's no way you and dad were superheroes and he started yelling to everyone that I was a stupid lying baby…so then I pushed him."

"Oh, Luka," I sighed. I had kind of hoped that the other child had thrown the first punch, but I guess not. I should've expected that it'd be my kid.

"Is Dad really mad at me?"

"He's just upset, sweetheart. But he'll be okay and we can forget about all of this."

He nodded. "I am sorry, Mama. I didn't mean to upset you or Dad."

"I know you didn't. Now off you go and play – George will be wondering where you are." He scooted from my lap and ran off, looking much happier now that he knew I wasn't mad. I stood, grateful that the twins were still asleep, and headed into the kitchen to wait for Dimitri.

After another half an hour, I decided to see if he was okay. Tentatively, I knocked on the door to the office.

"Dimitri?" He called for me to come in and I pushed the door open. He was sitting at the desk surrounded by papers, although I'd bet anything that he hadn't done any work whatsoever. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, sounding a little dejected. I leaned against the desk beside him.

"Are you sure? If you want, I can push back our reservation an hour or two?" He looked at me incredulously.

"Push them back? Rose, cancel them altogether! We need to deal with this!"

"Deal with what?" I asked him, perplexed. "It's not that big of a deal, Dimitri."

"Not that big of a- Rose, he beat another child up!"

"No, he didn't," I was getting quite worked up now, which wasn't good as Dimitri was usually the one who calmed me down. "He had a _fight_ – god knows how many I got into when I was his age."

"That's what I'm worried about…" Dimitri murmured, standing up and trying to step around me.

"Hey, where are you going? And what was that supposed to mean? So maybe I was a little more…aggressive than you were when I was a kid, but I turned out fine, didn't I? Plus, he told me what really happened – and you'd know too if you hadn't ignored him completely! Honestly Dimitri, I think you were probably better off yelling at him than pretending none of this happened and storming out-"

"I am not the one pretending this didn't happen," he turned to face me, his voice low and controlled. "You can't keep letting him off the hook with everything bad he does – if you do, he's never going to learn anything!"

"If he's being provoked, why can't he stand up for himself?!" I shot at him.

"Because _our son_," Dimitri took a step towards me. "-got called _a bully_ today, Rose! Do you have any idea how serious that is? It's different from when we were kids – being accused of something like that could affect everything – what high school he goes to, college…maybe even his career."

"You don't think you're being a little melodramatic?"

"No," His answer was firm, but he took a seat as the tension began to diffuse between us. "I'm sorry, Rose, but I can't _force _you to understand this. You need to realise it on your own."

"And you need to realise that this was just one fight, one time! It's not like he killed someone!" I sighed tiredly. I hated fighting with Dimitri. "Look, how about I push our reservation back an hour and we can talk about all of this properly?"

"I'm not in the mood for dinner," he replied, clearly still frustrated with me.

"I'm not exactly happy with you either right now," I shot back. "But I've been planning this for two weeks! Ivan's probably already on his way over to babysit."

"I'll call him and tell him we're rescheduling."

I stared at him and for a few moments, we stood in silence.

"You're kind of being a dick."

He sighed and slammed a hand against the wooden surface of the desk. "Rose, can't we just do this next weekend? Is it really that bad that I don't want to go on a date with you when we're fighting?"

"I put a lot of work into this date!"

"Why? It's not like-" I tuned out to what he was saying just then, because I could feel certain words threatening to burst from my mouth.

_No, Rose! Don't say it; this is not how you wanted to tell him, remember?_

Apparently not.

"Because I wanted to tell you that I'm pregnant!"

* * *

I found myself locked in the bathroom after my 'little' announcement. Silence had engulfed us as he processed my words – quite slowly. He still looked stunned even as I turned and fled the room, slamming the door angrily behind me.

In the safety of the bathroom, I slid to the tiles and let my tears escape. Sobs were trying to force their way from my stomach but I suppressed them, aware that Luka and George were playing in the next room.

_I was such an idiot!_ Not only had I ruined our evening, but I'd ruined the perfect way I had been going to tell him about my pregnancy. Our wedding anniversary was approaching and so I'd organised a dinner for the two of us. When we were there, I was going to give him a card, signed from me, the four boys and baby number five. But that was out the window now that my big mouth had blown the surprise.

I realised suddenly how ridiculous I must look, bawling my eyes out on the floor of the bathroom. And so, trying to regain some dignity, I stood and moved to the mirror over the sink, trying to salvage what was left of my makeup.

There was a tentative knock at the door, and although the person said nothing, I just knew it was him.

"Roza?"

Figuring I'd have to face him sooner or later (although right now, I'd rather it be _later_), I turned the key and let Dimitri in.

The expression on his face was still stunned, but there was a softness in his eyes now. I could see that he felt guilty about our fight.

I could still hear the boys playing with Avery next door. Apparently, so did Dimitri as he closed the bathroom door behind him to give us some privacy. I waited for him to say something, and when he didn't, I turned to sit on the edge of the bath.

"Are you sure?" He asked eventually, moving to take a seat beside me. I nodded, meeting his gaze. "I didn't even think we could get pregnant so soon after having the twins."

"Me either," I muttered. It had only been six months after I'd last given birth and certain female '_things'_ hadn't started back up again. Dimitri and I hadn't exactly been at it like rabbits, but lately, we'd started having sex again after being told it was okay by my doctor. Little did we know that we actually seemed to be more fertile when we_ weren't_ trying for a baby than when we were.

"How far along are you?" There was still a tension between us - not as palpable as it had been downstairs but it was definitely still there.

"Five weeks." The realisation of what I was telling him suddenly hit me all over again and I groaned. "Dimitri…what are we going to do?! We already have our hands more than full as it is! How on earth do we handle _another_ baby?! We're not ready for this!"

Dimitri held my hand in his and scooted closer. "We weren't ready for Luka," he reminded me. I thought back to the night that I had told him of my first pregnancy…it seemed like light-years ago. "And we managed perfectly fine."

I glanced up at my husband's face. Our proximity allowed me to truly see the lines of exhaustion after many months of restless nights and countless feedings. I wondered if our fight downstairs had anything to do with the fact that we were suffering from lack of sleep…

"We didn't do too badly then," I gave him a small joking smile.

"No," he kissed my temple. "You're right, we didn't. And I'm sorry about the things I said downstairs, Rose. Luka is a good boy – I think I'm being a little hard on him. I just want to make sure we teach him the right lessons so that he can make the best life for himself that he can."

"I know," I gave him a proper smile now and squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to downplay it."

"I know," he repeated my words and proceeded to pull me into his lap, the tension between us diffusing completely. "So…pregnant, huh?"

"Yup," I locked my fingers around his neck. "We have another code blue, comrade…or maybe a code pink. Guess we'll have to wait and see."

A warm smile crossed his face – it was the smile he usually got whenever he was around one of our babies.

"What do you want?" I asked him, watching as his fingers brushed across my stomach. "A boy or a girl?" I was happy to see him genuinely think about my question.

"I don't think I'd really mind either way…How about you?"

"I don't mind either…" He smiled. "…as long as it's not another boy."

* * *

**I'll post part 2 as soon as I can...in the meantime...**

**Gender bets anyone?**


	13. Chapter 13

***Well, this is it. I've got to admit, I'm feeling pretty sad about now. Did you know that it was two years ago in July when I posted the very first chapter of Hook, Line and Sinker. Never did I imagine that two years later, I'd be writing it's sequel's sequel and have the support that I have from you guys! I would really like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have made it with me this far – Two years is a long time! And I know for a fact that many of you have been with me from day one. Hook, Line and Sinker was the first ever fanfiction story that I finished, and even if you haven't been with me from day one – maybe you joined the journey along the way, it doesn't matter! Because to me, that's just as awesome!**

**I've had an amazing time writing this series, and I hope you guys really have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Some of you want another sequel or even another epilogue, but I think it's best to leave it where it is now. I'm done with story for now and I am so excited to work on some of my other incomplete Romitri stories on this site (as well as two new, unpublished ones ;)).**

***Anyway, enough of me :P Though I've been asked to inform you all that if you want to get Frostbite, the crowd-funding campaign has officially opened as of today. So if you can help out at all, follow this link: **

**www(ops)indiegogo(ops)com/projects/frostbite-a-vampire-academy-film**

**Just remove the (ops) and replace with a dot. We need to raise $1.5 million altogether to show that we really want it, so do whatever you can :)**

***And now, I present to you, the final chapter of the Hook, Line and Sinker/Learning Curves/Blessings series. This one contains small time jumps; I'm telling you to avoid confusion :)**

**Enjoy my dears :') **

* * *

**Chapter 13 – Epilogue part 2**

Their announcement was met with a slightly shocked silence, as well as a couple of blank stares before Olena jumped up from her seat to congratulate her son and daughter-in-law.

"Okay, I don't care what anybody says about this one-" Ivan yelled over the Belikova ladies, who had recovered from their brief surprise and had begun chattering excitedly. "But this one was definitely an accident."

"Ivan!" Somebody scolded him – I couldn't tell who.

"It doesn't matter," Karolina placed her hand against my abdomen. "As long as we get more nieces and nephews…although, could you try and have a girl this time? Zoya's getting tired of being the only one." I chuckled and said I'd try. I chuckled and promised to do what I could. Honestly, the idea of a baby girl was exciting to me, and I sort of hoped I had one growing inside of me. Dimitri and I hadn't yet discussed whether or not this was our last child, but I felt that five was enough. More than enough really.

As the commotion died down, Alex – and ergo, Nik – began to cry. I had just picked up Alex when Ivan grabbed the other baby carrier and asked if he could join me. Albeit slightly perplexed, I allowed him to accompany me to one of Olena's guest bedrooms so that I could feed them.

"Are you only in here to get a look at my chest?" I asked him suspiciously when he sat at the end of the bed. He chuckled and made himself comfortable near my feet.

"God no, everybody knows that I'm an ass man," he replied. "Speaking of which, yours is looking very good these days, Rose." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, well, not for long," I grumbled. "I swear, every time I get back in shape, BAM! I find out I'm pregnant."

"I blame Dimitri."

"I blame him too."

We grinned at each other before I returned my attention to Alex. While Alex fed from me, Ivan cradled a grumpy Nik in his arms.

"So…" Ivan looked up from tickling Nikolai's tummy. "Another baby, huh? Are you guys trying to recreate the Brady bunch or something? Or perhaps start your own football team? Cos I gotta tell ya, you're almost there."

"Haha," I replied sarcastically. "Very funny, Zeklos. You can have one of them if you'd like; I have my hands pretty much full with these four as it is."

"And I'd say Dimitri has his hands full with _those_," Ivan gestured to my half-exposed chest. I'd thought the baby was blocking me from sight, but apparently not. "I mean, people always say that during pregnancy a woman's breasts grow but _yowza, _Rose!"

"Hey, shut it! You're such an ass, you know that?" I would have thrown a pillow at him had he not been holding my son. "And you're lucky Dimitri's not in here or he'd kick your ass for checking out my chest."

"No need to worry, Rose," Ivan shot me his cheeky grin – a grin I had seen a thousand times over. "Like I said, I'm an ass man."

I rolled my eyes at him once again. I did that a lot around Ivan. "Did you want to talk to me about something, or did you just want to dazzle me with your awesome company."

"I thought we could spend some time together – I don't see you as much now that you're back at work. Therefore, I thought I'd honour you with my presence – which would usually cost you, but considering you're my best friend's wife and totally hot, I'm going to let you enjoy this privilege – free of charge."

"You're so thoughtful," I remarked, shifting Alex as he squirmed. Suddenly, Ivan made a face. "What is it?"

"Do you smell that?" I sniffed and shook my head.

"No, but it might be Nik's diaper. I'll get Dimitri-"

"No, that's okay. Leave Dimitri; he's talking to Olena. I'll do it." I looked at him blankly.

"You sure?"

"Why not? I've babysat your kids a hundred times – meaning I've changed thousands of diapers." I watched in awe as Ivan set to work, and realised that he must have indeed changed many, many diapers in recent years to have worked up to the skill level he had.

"You look impressed," he commented, amusement sparkling in his eyes a few minutes later. Nikolai babbled happily in his arms.

"I am," I agreed, looking at him incredulously. "You're better at it than _I am_! Hell, you might even give Dimitri a run for his money!"

"Be careful, Rose…you don't want 'Master of Changing Diapers' to go to my head – I won't be able to keep the ladies away." He winked jokingly. I covered myself up, noticing that Alex had fallen asleep.

"From what I've heard, you don't need to be Master Diaper-Changer to make '_the ladies_' come flocking to you – they seem to have trouble keeping themselves from worshipping the ground at your feet."

"My feet or the ground are most definitely _not_ what they're worshipping." Another suggestive wink.

"Okay, okay," I pretended to cover my son's ears. "They are _way_ too young to be listening to this. Don't you have some unfortunate victim to go to who'd only love to hear your dirty talk?"

"Funny that you should mention that," He stood and lay Nik safely in the middle of the bed. "I'm actually very late for a date with two very beautiful ladies."

"What do you mean _two_ ladies…wait, sorry, I forgot who I was talking to. Have fun in your threesome. Use protection. You don't want one of these." I lay Alex down beside Nik.

"Oh don't worry, Rose. I'm not dumb enough to get a complete stranger pregnant…_Oh wait, I forgot who I was talking to_…" he mocked, backing out of the room. I could hear him laughing as he walked down the hallway, clearly amused at his own joke. I would have followed him if I didn't have two babies – who were rolling around on the bed – to keep from falling off it.

"What's he laughing at?" Dimitri entered the room a moment later, apparently after passing a still-chuckling Ivan on his way.

"You're best friend is a douchebag…but we love him anyway."

"Actually, sometimes I think we love him _because_ he's a douchebag," Dimitri pointed out. He came forward and lifted Alex into his arms. With his other arm, he lifted the diaper bag. "You ready to head home? George fell asleep; I just put him in your car with Luka so I can take the twins."

"Okay," I grabbed the last of our things and stuffed it into the bag before picking up Nik. We headed out to say goodbye and thanks to Dimitri's mom for having us. We finally managed to get out after intense warnings from Olena about updating her on our scan next week. I threw Dimitri to the wolves and went to say goodbye to Lissa, who was also getting ready to go home.

"See you guys soon," I smiled and hugged Lissa. Glancing into her backseat, I saw that Isabella and Cooper had already fallen asleep. Abigail however – their newest addition to the family – was wide awake and gazing back at me.

"Goodnight, cutie," I tickled her cheek and kissed her forehead. "Ugh, Liss, she's so cute…how come you got two girls and I have none." I pretended to pout, which made her giggle.

"None _yet, _Rose," she nudged me. "I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the little peanut in there might just be a girl."

"I hope you're right," I joked. "I don't think I could handle five boys…hell, I don't even think I can handle four boys! I need a girl; someone to lend me some girl power when I'm surrounded by all that masculine energy. Anyway, goodnight, Liss. I'll call you this weekend, ok?"

"Sounds good to me," We hugged again and with one last little wave to Abigail, I turned and hopped into my car, which had two young sleeping boys in the back.

* * *

"Okay, I don't know what's up, or what's gotten you so worked up, but you need to calm down." I was currently sitting on top of Dimitri's desk as sitting down into a chair was too much effort for me. He, on the other hand, was pacing back and forth in his office, going over some paperwork. When he didn't answer, I decided to intervene.

"Okay, that's it," He looked up at my firm tone, looking as if he'd only just noticed I was there. "Come here." After a little more coaxing, he approached me and I took the paper from his hands, much to his dismay.

"No," I slapped his hand away as he made to take them back. "Dimitri, you need to chill…_and_, you need to find a better way of releasing your stress other than pacing because you'll wear a hole in the carpet."

"Yeah? What do you suggest?" I smirked and pulled him down towards me, slamming my lips against his. Instantly, my hormones jumped into action and the tension ramped up between us. Dimitri's hands went to my bump, which made me want to roll my eyes. We kissed like that for a few minutes, before I removed his hands from my stomach and shoved them around my waist. Being as close as we were, I managed to wrap both legs around him and pull him, if possible, even closer. I was just feeling all tingly and hot when he began to pull away.

"We can't do this now," he said, gripping my ankles and trying to free himself. "We don't have time; I have a meeting."

"So?" I murmured against his lips. "Skip out on it."

"_I'm_ the one holding the meeting," he reminded me, tucking some hair behind my ear before fixing his tie. "I have to talk to the people I'm in charge of about a new case."

"Wait a second," I frowned. "_I'm_ one of the people that you're in charge of? Why wasn't I invited?"

"Because you're going on leave soon, and you're not directly under me." He had just fixed his tie, but I grabbed it and yanked him back toward me. Linking a hand around his neck, I pulled him so that his ear was less than an inch from my lips.

"I was directly under you last night…"

His groan was the only indication that he was truly affected by my comment – well that, and the last, intense kiss he gave me before leaving for his meeting. I grinned proudly before sitting into his chair for a couple of hours. I had some time to kill before Dimitri would be ready, what better way to spend it than to take a nap in Dimitri's fancy office?

* * *

DPOV

I knocked tentatively on our bedroom door, just in case Rose had fallen asleep in the last fifteen minutes. A 'come in' on the other side informed me of the fact that was in fact, not asleep. Shifting the tray I was holding into one arm, I managed to turn the door handle and let myself in.

On the other side of the door, I found a tired – and very pregnant – Rose sitting up in the bed. She was positioned in a way that I suspected if she had not been pregnant, she would have been sitting cross-legged. Her pregnant stomach prevented that however.

"Oh goodie," She grinned at me, eyeing the bowl of ice cream I held. Carefully, she shifted herself so that she was supported by the headboard. "What flavour is it?"

"Chocolate, but I bought vanilla and strawberry too in case you felt like some." Rose had actually just asked for chocolate ice cream, but I had long since learned some techniques when it came to preventing emotional breakdowns. If that meant buying three different flavours of ice cream instead of one? Well, it was so worth the extra couple of dollars.

"Thanks, comrade," she smiled up at me. "You're the best."

I let her enjoy her ice cream in peace while I went about the bedroom tidying up some clothes and towels that had been thrown around…or that's what I had been doing until I heard Rose sniffling. Hurrying out of the bathroom, I ran to her side.

"What's the matter?!"

She choked back a sob. "You forgot a spoon…"

At least that's what I thought she said – it was kind of hard to understand her muffled words, but the general gist of her problem was clear upon looking into her bowl and seeing that I had indeed, forgotten to bring up a spoon on the tray.

"I'm sorry, Roza," I said quietly, channelling all of my patience. I'd needed every ounce of it during this pregnancy, and as bad as it sounded, I was looking forward to not having to deal with anymore of Rose's pregnancy hormones. "Don't cry; I'll just run downstairs and get one." She sniffled and nodded her head slowly. I handed her a tissue to clean herself up.

"You can bring up two if you want," she said just before I left the room. "I'll let you share with me." I smiled with relief at the joking glint in her eyes, glad to have (almost) avoided a crying session. An hour later when the ice cream was long devoured, I was lying in bed beside her, the atmosphere as quiet and serene as it had been all afternoon.

"When did you mom say she'd be back with the boys?" Rose asked me, speaking for the first time in what had to have been twenty minutes. I hadn't noticed though – sitting in silence with Rose was just as comfortable as sitting and having a conversation with her.

"She didn't," I replied, whispering. I didn't really know why; there was no sleeping babies – no reason to have to be quiet. But it was peaceful all the same. "I figure sometime in the next couple of hours."

"Okay," A small smile spread across her face and she turned her face to look at me. I met her eyes and immediately was just as captivated by them as I had been on the very first night I had met her. Here they were, almost ten years later, and they were just as beautiful. "The baby's kicking again."

Automatically, a smile slid onto my face as I reached over and felt my baby's movements.

"You still really want a girl?" I asked her, mentally picturing a mini-Rose toddling around the house. She nodded.

"And what if it happens to be a boy?" I asked in amusement.

"Let me put it this way, I don't care what gender this baby turns out to be, I will call it a girl's name and raise it as a girl."

"Yeah? What about puberty? What happens then?"

"Hey, that will not be my problem. That will be his…or hers…?"

I laughed at her confused tone and pulled her body closer to mine. We only had a couple of hours left until the rest of our children returned home and I was going to make the most of our alone time.

* * *

DPOV

It was only three weeks later when Rose went into labour, just under full-term. She had hoped that her labour would be as short as the twins' had been, but no. Just like our first experience in labour, our final labour lasted almost the same amount of time.

And so, thirty hours after being emitted into hospital, our beautiful Lily-Rose Belikov Hathaway was brought into the world, with ten fingers, ten toes and a soft tuft of extremely soft curls on top of her head.

At only three hours old, my baby girl had me completely wrapped around her tiny fingers, and I wanted nothing more than to pick her up and hold her in my arms. Instead, I stood in the hallway and stared through the large glass window that overlooked the nursery. It took me only a moment to find my daughter among the other babies.

Rose had been ecstatic when we discovered it was a girl – and incredibly emotional. We had decided after months of deliberating that Rose would get her tubes tied after having Lily-Rose. Well, Rose had decided and I had been supportive. So while Lily was snoozing in her cot and I was waiting, Rose was back in surgery undergoing a postpartum tubal ligation. We had been told that the procedure itself wouldn't take very long, but I was anxious to have her out of surgery and into recovery as soon as possible.

Time seemed to stand still as I paced corridors, gazed at our new-born and made phone calls. I wasn't sure how Rose would react after the surgery and so I had asked my family and whoever else would like to visit to wait until tomorrow when she would be feeling more up to it.

Seeing Rose after she had woken up, I knew I had made the right choice. The moment she awoke and looked at me, her eyes welled up with tears and she cried. I worried for a while that she regretted what she had just done; did she want another baby sometime in the future? But after she had calmed down, she assured me that she was okay, and that we had made the right decision. She had just been feeling sad that we wouldn't ever go through a pregnancy again, or a labour, or taking care of a new-born.

Those feelings seemed to disappear the very moment Lily-Rose was brought into the room after Rose's surgery.

"Oh my god," she breathed, gazing down at the small bundle, who had been wrapped in a pink blanket. "Isn't the just the most beautiful thing you ever saw?" I nodded in agreement, unsure of how I was even capable of staying in control right now. Having a baby was always an emotional experience, but in that moment - knowing that my family was finally complete – I felt more alive than ever. Happier than I ever thought I could be.

"Do you want to hold her?" I nodded and took the baby from her outstretched hands. I was staring at her for a long time before being able to say something.

"She's gorgeous."

* * *

RPOV – _Three Years Later_

I grinned as I opened my front door wider so that Olena could enter. After removing her jacket, she pulled me into a warm, greeting hug.

"You look beautiful, Roza," she said, holding me at arm's length. Feeling a little shy all of a sudden, I accepted her compliment a little bashfully. My figure was something I had been working on a lot lately; being in my line of work meant that I had to stay in good shape – but having five kids doesn't really allow for you to keep a fit body. I hadn't the time to focus on my body right after Lily was born. The twins, however, had recently started school and I'd had a little more time to concentrate on _me._ Dimitri had been great too – motivating me to exercise and offering to watch all five kids so that I could go for a swim or a run in the evenings.

This evening, I had put myself on show in a black dress with thin straps to show off my new and improved body – something I was sure Dimitri was going to love when he finally saw me.

"Where's the birthday boy?" Olena asked me, allowing me to take her coat and hang it up.

"He'll be with us shortly," I giggled. "He's in the middle of a tea-party with Lily and her teddies." Olena smiled, her warm eyes sparkling at the thought.

"That should give us some time to set up," she noted, handing me a grocery bag. One peek inside showed me that it had some birthday banners and balloons inside of it. While I started blowing up the balloons and scattering them around the kitchen and living area, Olena went to fetch the cake she had made from the car.

"Oh, that looks _amazing!"_ My mouth watered at the very sight of the chocolate frosting.

"So does this," I jumped in surprise as Dimitri's voice sounded from right behind me. Before I could recover, he had wrapped his arms around my waist and placed a kiss on my shoulder. "_You_ look amazing, Roza."

Turning my head to the side, I kissed his jawline. "Thank you, comrade." I could've stayed in his arms forever, but then I realised where we were.

"Wait, you're not supposed to be here!" I exclaimed, removing myself from his arms. "This was supposed to be a surprise?"

He gave me an amused look, his hands making their way back to my waist. "You were throwing a surprise birthday party for me while I was still in the house?"

"No," I pouted. "Your mom was."

"Dimka!" Olena – who had left the room to stick some balloons on the front door just before Dimitri had come downstairs – hurried towards her only son. I smiled as he embraced him and held his cheeks like she did when he was young. "Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks, Mama," he smiled and let her kiss his cheek and fix his shirt. "All of this looks great." Olena, like me, didn't seem to realise that Dimitri had just walked straight into the 'party-zone.'

"Oh no," she slapped his chest playfully. "_You_ were not supposed to see any of this until the guests arrived!"

"Guests?" Dimitri looked surprised at this. I smiled to myself; at least we had surprised him with something.

"Just family," I assured him, knowing he didn't like people fussing over him. "Lissa, Chris and the kids too. Sonya and Mikhail said they'll try and stop by and I'm pretty sure Mason and Eddie are going to come in for an hour. Oh, and Abe's in town."

"How come?" Dimitri questioned, grabbing a chip from the big bowl on the table. "Work or did he fly out to visit us?"

"Who knows with him," I muttered, sneaking a chip too while Olena wasn't looking. "I guess- Oh! Speak of the devil and he shall appear," I joked as Abe let himself in the front door.

"No need for flattery, my sweet innocent daughter." He grinned as he approached me. He kissed my forehead. "You look great, Rose."

"Thanks," I smiled and studied him. "You look…bright." I wasn't lying – Abe had arrived in one of his typical suits, coupled with a bright red shirt that I had never seen before, a gold earring in one ear and a golden-threaded scarf that I had seen him wear before.

"Belikov," Abe proceeded to shake Dimitri's hand and I left them to chat for a bit while I helped Olena out in the kitchen. We had decided against making dinner as there was just too many mouths to feed, but we seemed to have an endless supply of snacks, which would very likely be devoured by my own kids alone.

"Rose?" As more people began to arrive, Abe gestured for me to follow him. I did and we ended up on the porch at the back of the house. I took a seat beside him on one of steps leading to the garden – where the boys were currently playing – being careful not to dirty my dress.

"Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," he gave my knee a squeeze. "I just wanted to tell you that I talked to your mom earlier this week – she asked me to ask you if it would be okay if she stopped by soon. She's flying out here in two weeks to investigate a case and said…and she said that she wants to meet the rest of her grandchildren." Abe and I looked at each other, both knowing that this was a huge step for my mom. For so long, she had just tolerated my existence – even my kids' existence. For her to want to meet George, Alex, Nik and Lily was phenomenal – even more so because _she_ had been the one of make the first step.

"She's been seeing someone," Abe explained. "A therapist, I mean. I guess talking through everything that's wrong in her life has made her realise what's important."

Gradually, my smile widened. "That's great. Will you tell her from me that we'd love if she stopped by. She could even stay with us while she's here if she wanted."

"I'll let her know," He kissed my temple. "And thanks, Rose. This will mean a lot to her."

"It would mean a lot to me too."

We sat in silence for a little bit, just watching the boys kicking the ball around and Lily as she picked flowers and handed them to her favourite teddy bear.

"One more thing," Abe said suddenly, reaching into his inside pocket. He handed me a black velvet box. Cautiously, I opened it to find a beautiful necklace. The chain was white gold and simple, and hanging from it was a small pendent, where a base of silver held a series of coloured circles. Right in the centre was a dark blue circle that stood out from the others.

"It's beautiful," I whispered. "Striking."

"Like you," Abe said, lifting the necklace from it's box and fastening it around my neck for me. "It's a nazaar; it supposed to keep you safe and protected. Look at the back of it." I did. Engraved into the flat silver disc was my own name and birthday, similar to the watches Abe had given all four of my boys. "I had it made because it's about time the women in the Mazur line get some heirlooms. The original tradition is for the men to get watches, but I thought we could start a new tradition for women. I had one made for Lily as well; I thought you could give it to her on her eighteenth birthday too."

"Dad, that was really sweet." It really was; I was actually feeling a little emotional. We stood and hugged for a moment, before smiling at each other and returning inside.

"Rose!" Ivan had apparently arrived in my absence and seemed to already have gone through his second beer. "Just in time – I'm giving Dimitri his present." I watched as Dimitri unwrapped the package from his best friend. I couldn't see what it was at first, although I could see black material.

Dimitri lifted up what appeared to be a black t-shirt and scoffed. Ivan burst out laughing.

"Isn't it awesome?!" He grinned and punched Dimitri's arm.

"Let me see!" Dimitri rolled his eyes at Ivan and turned the t-shirt so that I could see. Printed on the front of it were the words:

_F.B.I – __**F**__emale __**B**__ody __**I**__nspector_

"Will you ever change?" I asked Ivan, rolling my eyes too. He immediately looked indignant.

"What? I thought it was fitting! You can't tell me that it's not funny…" He looked at me expectantly.

"Fine," I grumbled in mock annoyance. "It's pretty funny." Both Dimitri and Ivan smirked at me. I shoved Dimitri's arm and couldn't help but chuckle when he grabbed a hold of me and pulled me close. He had been about to kiss me when-

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

"Uh oh," I glanced at the doorway and then down at my dress. "If one of them has fallen in mud, been pushed into mud, picked up a slug or snail or tried to eat one, then I'm not dealing with it!" I said quickly, pointing to my new dress. Dimitri grimaced – probably remembering the day when George had attempted to put a slug in his mouth…

Boy, that had not been pretty.

"Daddy!" A moment later, Lily came toddling into the room in new brand new pink and white dress. As she ran - or walked quickly – her long dark hair that was so like mine swished behind her, looking slightly wind-swept after half an hour of running around outside. "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie?" Dimitri bent down to her height, and I found myself bracing myself to hear what one of the boys had done.

"Guess what?!" She exclaimed excitedly. "I saw a_ butterfly!_ And it flew right by me! I tried to get it but I'm too little…will you help me?"

Dimitri just stared at her for a moment before glancing back up at me, his eyes soft.

"I love having a girl."

I grinned as he picked her up into his arms and carried her back outside. I knew he loved having a girl as much as I did. The tea parties, the dolls, the pink…well, _anything_ pink, anything Disney, princesses – we loved every bit of it because it was completely new.

I turned towards the food and was about to grab a plate when my phone began to ring. Excusing myself from our guests (more had been arriving), I left the room and answered.

"Hans?"

"Rose," he greeted me, sounding as efficient and formal as ever. "I want to talk to you."

"I didn't do it!"

"I- You didn't do what?"

"Never mind," I replied hastily. "What were you going to say?"

"I just wanted to let you know that a job opened upstairs at the branch, and I want you to take it. We've been watching you closely and after your most recent completed case, we all agreed that this job is yours and yours only. And don't worry; it's the same hours, just a different office and better pay. Probably less paperwork too…what do you say?"

"Let me get this straight…" I said slowly. "You're offering me a promotion? That's a relief, I thought you calling me because you found-"

"Because I found what?" He asked, suspicion lacing his voice after I had cut myself off.

"Nothing," I covered quickly, a grin sliding over my face. "That's great, Hans, thank you! See you Monday!" I hung up before he question me further.

Excitedly, I returned to the kitchen.

"What are you so happy about?" I hadn't noticed that Dimitri had returned from the garden. I happily let him wound his arms around my waist.

"Hans just called me – He's given me a promotion." Dimitri's reaction was exactly what I had expected. A beautiful smile spread across his face and he picked me up to swing me around.

"That's fantastic, Roza!" He kissed my lips before placing me back on my feet. "You deserve this; I'm happy for you."

"I'm happy for me too." He had put me back on the ground but I didn't want to be out of his arms, and so I wrapped them around his waist and rested my head against his chest. This way, I could feel his warmth and hear his heartbeat, all the while watching the happy faces of my family and friends. Seeing two wine glasses beside us, I picked them up and handed him one. "Happy Birthday, comrade." I raised mine.

Grinning, he clinked his against it. "Here's to many, many, many more birthdays together."

"Cheers, comrade. I love you."

"I love you, too, Roza. Forever and always."

* * *

**_The_ _End._**


	14. Oneshot posted!

Just informing you all that I've posted a one-shot that's set after this story, revolving around Rose, Dimitri and their young family.

It's called The Camping Trip and will be found on my profile. It was written for Dimitri's . Smexi . Shewolf's competition to support the Frostbite crowdfunding.

You'll find more info within the oneshot, and I hope to hear from y'all.

It's a competition so help me out guys ;)


End file.
